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Top seed cruises past O'Connell
August 31, 2024
Jannik Sinner takes a 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head series lead against Christopher O'Connell.
AFP/Getty Images
Jannik Sinner takes a 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head series lead against Christopher O'Connell.
By ATPTour.com/es Staff
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 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."


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.

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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.

On back-to-back days Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic suffered stunning defeats at the US Open, sending shockwaves through the tennis world.

The players remaining in the draw, headlined by Jannik Sinner, were quick to credit their opponents and point out that losses are part of the sport.

“It shows that this sport is unpredictable. Whenever you drop a little bit of your level, if it's mental, if it's tennis-wise or physical, at the end it has a huge impact on the result. Both opponents who they lost against, they played some incredible tennis. And it happens,” Sinner said. “So I just watch on my side what I have to do, that I guess I have done also in last period of time, and then we will see what I can do.”

One player who was directly impacted by one of the upsets was 25th seed Jack Draper. The Briton was in the same section of the draw as Alcaraz. But instead, the lefty faced the Spaniard’s conqueror, Botic van de Zandschulp.

“I think both of them, [Carlos and Novak], obviously played the Olympic final. I think that's taken a lot out of them. It's taken a lot out of everyone, but they obviously made the finals, and it was emotional for both of them,” Draper said. “Obviously Novak, that was probably his biggest goal, and to come through that is obviously emotionally challenging to sort of have a rest and then come here.

“Same with Carlos as well. He's achieved so much this year winning the French, Wimbledon. I'm not surprised that they're probably feeling really tired and emotionally a bit drained. But I watched both the matches, and I thought Botic played an incredibly high level of tennis against Alcaraz.”

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Draper took advantage, defeating van de Zandschulp in straight sets Saturday to reach the fourth round. While preparing for his own match, he saw the first two sets of Alexei Popyrin’s stunner over Djokovic.

“I didn't honestly feel like Djokovic was playing incredibly badly. Maybe his serve was a bit below par, but I felt like Popyrin played an incredible match as well,” Draper said. “There are a lot of players on the tour at the moment who are really dangerous and on their day can play an amazing match against the best players in the world.”

Home favourite Tommy Paul joked he was hoping the Popyrin-Djokovic match would end earlier.

“I wanted to go to sleep. Today was the first day I used an alarm clock the whole tournament,” Paul said, cracking a laugh. “I think the guys that played Alcaraz and Novak both stepped up and played awesome. But, yeah, I feel like I had the Olympic fatigue, I guess at the right time, in Canada and Cincy, but now I'm feeling pretty good. I had a nice little reset. It's a tough turnaround. We never go from grass to clay to hard so quickly.

“But I don't want to take anything away from those guys. They earned those wins and they played awesome tennis. I'm happy for them. And Carlos and Novak have won quite a few tournaments, so I don't feel too bad, I guess.”

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Australian Jordan Thompson, who also made the fourth round on Saturday, does not watch a tonne of tennis in general.

“But I’ve been glued to it recently. Last night when I wasn’t at dinner I was watching Pop [Alexei Popyrin] play,” Thompson said. “He was playing the greatest of all time and took him time. We’ve got Davis Cup around the corner, so the corner couldn’t be better. If I do watch someone, it’ll be someone that I like or another Aussie.”

Nuno Borges, who advanced to the Round of 16 for the first time, caught short bits of each upset.

“I thought they played great. Talking about Popyrin first, I know he’s been on a big confidence moment and he’s always been a very dangerous player to be honest. Maybe it didn’t feel like he was that close, but I’m sure he was… closer than people think. When his big serve is going, there’s not really much you can do sometimes,” Borges said. “It doesn’t surprise me. Novak can have an average day and then a few more mistakes than usual and all of a sudden he’s two sets down and anything can happen.

“Carlos, I think he’s paying a little bit the price of such a heavy summer too. He’s won so much and I’m sure he gave it all in the Olympic Games. Maybe he still hasn’t been able to fully recover mentally. That’s tennis. We’re expecting always so much from him, but you look back and he’;s still done some very, very good results.”

World No. 1 discusses what he has changed in his serve
September 02, 2024
Jannik Sinner serves during the US Open, where he is pursuing his second major title.
Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Jannik Sinner serves during the US Open, where he is pursuing his second major title.
By Andrew Eichenholz
A lot of the attention on Jannik Sinner’s game goes to his booming groundstrokes and dominant baseline game. But the key to his ascent to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings this year has been his serve.

The Italian has dominated all major service categories according to Infosys ATP Stats, positioning himself to unleash the rest of his game on the ATP Tour.

“There are still signs of sometimes being inconsistent with that shot. It has been more consistent in the last three, four months, that's for sure,” Sinner told ATPTour.com in Cincinnati. “Then it's a weapon or a shot where I can put myself a little bit out of danger sometimes, but I still believe that there's a lot of work to do.”

Sinner entered the US Open leading the Tour in service games won (91.3%), second-serve points won (57.5%) and break points saved (72.9%). He is second in first-serve points won at 79.5 per cent, which only trails Grigor Dimitrov.

“We changed a couple of things with the toss of the ball, and also my mental side,” Sinner said. “It has been different, trying to play sometimes with a bit more rotation, instead of going to hit the ace or all that stuff.”

<a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jann ... ew'>Jannik Sinner</a>
Photo Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour
One of the best servers in the history of tennis, John Isner, has taken notice of the Italian’s improvement. The final meeting of their Lexus ATP Head2Head series came two years ago at Wimbledon.

“A lot of people have noticed, myself included, that Sinner has, really since working with Darren Cahill, changed his service motion from platform to pinpoint,” Isner said. “His serve looks pretty similar to mine and in my mind, that’s the superior way to serve. So he obviously stuck with it. It seems like it would be a simple change, but it’s definitely not. He stuck with it, stayed the course and it’s paying off for him as his service numbers are so, so good."

Isner won 91.8 per cent of his service games in his career, with his record 14,470 aces a big reason why. The American explained that Sinner’s improvement has been different.

“It’s not that he’s hitting a million aces like I did, but a little bit better placement allows him to dictate play much quicker in the rally on his serve and we all know he’s one of the best baseliners in the world,” Isner said. “It seems to me he’s improved just his serve in a vacuum about 10 per cent and that’s been huge for him and a big reason why he ascended to No. 1 in the world.”

Another dominant server, Reilly Opelka, won a doubles title with Sinner in Atlanta in 2021. The American missed nearly two years due to a wrist injury. But upon his return this year in Newport, he raved about how much the Italian has improved.

“Jannik's improved a tonne since I've been on Tour. No one talks about it just because he was always really good,” Opelka said. “He didn't have a great serve when I left. He took the ball almost too early, and made too many unforced errors. The guy barely loses to anybody now. You can't say hands down the best player in the world since Alcaraz won Wimbledon, but those two are on their own level.”

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According to Opelka, Sinner is hitting his spots with his serve “way better” and his cadence has changed.

“His motion looks faster. It looks like he changed the tempo of his motion,” Opelka said. “Any young guy — he was so young, and he was so good — you just knew he was going to improve and he's still going to improve, which is scary. I got to hang out with him in Atlanta. Nicest kid in the whole world. We were going to dinner every night. Everything that you see, that you suspect, is who he really is. He's as sweet of a guy as you can imagine.”

Sinner has not served quite as well in New York, where he has won 85 per cent of his service games. However, compared to his early-career numbers, that is still a solid effort. Before 2023, the Italian never won more than 83 per cent of his service games in a season.

The 85 per cent is also slightly misleading. The 23-year-old has lost serve six times in the tournament, and three of those service games came in his first set of the tournament. In his nine sets since, he has dropped a total of three service games. Excluding that opening set against Mackenzie McDonald, Sinner has won 89.5 per cent of his service games.

Sinner’s second-round opponent, #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen, came away from their clash inside Arthur Ashe Stadium impressed.

“The guy is hitting 128 [mph] flat wide aces on the Ad and [at] 15/30, 40/30, on big points, he’s coming up with the goods,” Michelsen said. “He’s a very clutch server and that’s not really something I realised until I played him and it’s just like, ‘Ugh, this guy’s getting two, three free points a game’, and that helps a lot.”