NEW YORK (AP) — Jannik Sinner got broken for the first time in Week 1 of the U.S. Open. Dropped the opening set, even. Fell way behind in the third set, too.
“I’m not a machine, you know,” he said with the hint of a smile Saturday. “I also struggle, sometimes.”
Hmmm. Sure, Jannik, maybe so. Still, Sinner is the No. 1-ranked player in men’s tennis and has won the past three Grand Slam tournaments played on hard courts, so no one was surprised when he set aside some lapses and emerged to beat No. 27 Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 Saturday to take his title defense at Flushing Meadows to the fourth round.
On Monday, Sinner will face No. 23 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan for a place in the quarterfinals.
Bublik beat No. 14 Tommy Paul of the United States 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in a 3 1/2-hour match that ended at 1:16 a.m. Sunday.
Sinner’s latest triumph stretched his hard-court unbeaten run at majors to 24 matches, covering championships at the U.S. Open in 2024 and the Australian Open in 2024 and 2025. He also won the trophy at Wimbledonon grass courts in July.
But Sinner’s set streak in New York ended; he had claimed 14 in a row since dropping one in a victory against 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals a year ago.
For the first time at this U.S. Open, Coco Gauff didn’t double-fault in her first service game. And for the first time, she didn’t get broken to begin things, either.
With her work-in-progress serve looking the best it has so far in this trip to Flushing Meadows, the No. 3-seeded Gauff turned in by far her most solid — and stress-free — performance Saturday, defeating No. 28 Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-3, 6-1 to reach the fourth round of a tournament she won in 2023.
Gauff will face four-time major champion Naomi Osaka on Monday for a berth in the quarterfinals.
Osaka, who won titles in New York in 2018 and 2020, moved into the fourth round — a stage she last got to at any major at the 2021 Australian Open — with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory over No. 15 Daria Kasatkina.
Sinner explained that his serve did not feel quite right Saturday, and that Shapovalov was reading it well.
