Sinner avoids same fate as Alcaraz, Djokovic, reaches US Open R4

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic each fell in a stunning opening-week loss at the US Open. Jannik Sinner refused to suffer the same fate on Saturday.

The top seed cruised past Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. It is the fourth consecutive year in which he has advanced that far in New York.

"Everything can happen in this sport, so I try to stay on my side of the net and I'm trying to take [the tournament] day by day," Sinner said in his on-court interview. "Each opponent is a very tough challenge and [I am] also enjoying every moment on the court. There have been already a couple of upsets, so let's see what's coming.

"But I'm very happy to still be here and hopefully I can play as many matches as possible. But as I said, we go day by day and then we'll see how it goes."

Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' ?

Rock and roll tennis World No. 1 @janniksin as he seals a fourth round spot in New York. @usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/csy8PkCVaO

Sinner will face 14th seed Tommy Paul or Gabriel Diallo for a place in the quarter-finals. The 23-year-old has advanced to at least the last eight at every major this season, capturing his maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open.

When Alcaraz and Djokovic lost in each of the past two days, respectively, they made slow starts and were never able to recover. That was not the case for Sinner against O’Connell.

The Italian came out firing with his booming groundstrokes and never allowed his opponent to get comfortable. His baseline game was in full flow and where his rivals Alcaraz and Sinner misfired and struggled to find rhythm, Sinner hit 46 winners to just 22 unforced errors.

The 15-time tour-level champion lost his first set of the tournament routinely to Mackenzie McDonald. Since then, Sinner has been nearly untouchable. He has lost only 18 games in his past nine sets, an average of two games lost per set.

The 2023 Nitto ATP Finals runner-up closed out the match with a serve-and-volley play, punching a forehand into the open court before quietly pumping his fist in celebration. Sinner has won seven consecutive matches since the start of the Cincinnati Open and is now 51-5 on the season.

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