Top-ranked Jannik Sinner never gives U.S. Open opponent hope of an upset

NEW YORK —  Jannik Sinner never gave his third-round opponent at the U.S. Open on Saturday, Chris O’Connell, even a moment to contemplate pulling off the sort of monumental upsets that eliminated Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

The No. 1-ranked Sinner, suddenly the favorite to win the men’s championship at Flushing Meadows next weekend, won the first five games and 21 of the first 29 points to make quite clear how things would go at Arthur Ashe Stadium and wrapped up a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over O’Connell in less than two hours.

“I felt like he was on from the get-go,” O’Connell said. “I felt a little bit clueless, to be honest. ... Every single shot, I just felt like I had to do something with it, because he was just on me. He was suffocating me.”

Stepping on court less than 15 hours after Djokovic’s loss to Alexei Popyrin, and two days after Alcaraz’s loss to Botic van de Zandschulp, Sinner was as dominant as can be in every facet of the sport. With 23-time major champion Serena Williams watching from an Arthur Ashe Stadium suite, Sinner struck 15 aces. He never faced a break point. He won five of O’Connell’s 12 service games. He finished with more than twice as many winners, 46, as unforced errors, 22.

“The best tennis player I’ve ever played, for sure,” the 30-year-old O’Connell said.

Since losing the first set he played in New York, against Mackie McDonald — which also was the first set Sinner had played since news emerged of a doping case that involved two positive tests in March for trace amounts of a banned anabolic steroid — the 23-year-old from Italy has performed impeccably, dropping only 18 games across nine sets.

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Trying to collect his second Grand Slam title of the year after gaining the first of his career at the Australian Open in January, Sinner will face No. 14 Tommy Paul of the United States or qualifier Gabriel Diallo of Canada in the fourth round on Monday.

Perhaps there was some wariness on Sinner’s part heading into Saturday, given recent events. This is, after all, only the third time in the Open era (the others were in 1973 and 2000) that two of the top three seeded men were gone before the fourth round.

So Sinner woke up as the man considered likeliest to win the U.S. Open, a status that belonged to No. 3 Alcaraz — the champion at the French Open and Wimbledon this season — before the tournament began. No. 2 Djokovic — the defending champ and owner of a men’s-record 24 major trophies — moved atop the odds when Alcaraz was sent home Thursday night, only to relinquish that after his own early exit Friday night.

The 87th-ranked O’Connell harbored hope of producing yet another surprise, even if he’s never beaten a member of the top 10 or been past the third round at a Slam.

What Van de Zandschulp and Popyrin did allowed O’Connell to dream of producing something similar against Sinner.

“I mean, yeah, I’ve got to believe,” O’Connell said, “but I just felt that he was really on fire.”

There is something quite difficult about trying to follow up one career-best win with another, and Van de Zandschulp didn’t really show up on Saturday, eliminated by No. 25 Jack Draper 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

“After the match [against Alcaraz], it was a little bit crazy,” Van de Zandschulp said. “You try to think about the next match but you get reminded a lot of the match the day before. So of course it was tough to play today after the last two days.”

Draper, a 22-year-old left-hander from Britain, is into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the second year in a row. He never has been past that stage at a Grand Slam tournament, and neither has his next opponent, unseeded Tomas Machac, a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 winner against David Goffin.

Earlier Saturday, Jasmine Paolini joined Coco Gauff as the only women to reach at least the fourth round at every major in 2024, getting that far at the U.S. Open for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva.

The fifth-seeded Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy, had never made it past the second round in 16 appearances at majors entering this season. But she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open in January, before being the runner-up at both the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July.

Now she is once again into Week 2. Paolini compiled 13 of her 22 winners off the forehand side against Putintseva at Louis Armstrong Stadium and will meet 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova on Monday.

Also reaching the fourth round with a win Saturday was No. 6 Jessica Pegula of the United States. She overwhelmed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain 6-3, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Bouzas Maneiro grabbed attention at Wimbledon by eliminating defending champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.