Since coming out of a running defeatist hoodoo at the hands of Carlos Alcaraz by his stunning Wimbledon triumph over his closest rival that was a haunting element to the World number ones tennis career, Jannik Sinner has breathed that new draught of dexterity to the game rising from the dampening in his very next appearance since then when a sudden illness forced him to quit the Cincinnati Open finals conceding it to Alcaraz to hitting an almost unbeatable trail by third round conquests dispatching Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 at the US Open on Saturday.
The world No 1 has now gone further to rising to 18-0 in that Grand Slam stat with his latest victory in Flushing Meadows.
SINNER’S THIRD-ROUND18-0 HIGH READS:
• Coria in ’20 Roland Garros 3rd Rd, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5
• Ymer in ’21 Roland Garros 3rd Rd, 6-1, 7-5, 6-3
• Monfils in ’21 US Open 3rd Rd, 7-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Daniel in ’22 Australian Open 3rd Rd, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1
• McDonald in ’22 Roland Garros 3rd Rd, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3
• Isner in ’22 Wimbledon 3rd Rd, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3
• Nakashima in ’22 US Open 3rd Rd, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2
• Fucsovics in ’23 Australian Open 3rd Rd, 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0
• Halys in ’23 Wimbledon 3rd Rd, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
• Wawrinka in ’23 US Open 3rd Rd, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Baez in ’24 Australian Open 3rd Rd, 6-0, 6-1, 6-3
• Kotov in ’24 Roland Garros 3rd Rd, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Kecmanovic in ’24 Wimbledon 3rd Rd, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2
• O’Connell in ’24 US Open 3rd Rd, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
• Giron in ’25 Australian Open 3rd Rd, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Lehecka in ’25 Roland Garros 3rd Rd, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2
• Martinez in ’25 Wimbledon 3rd Rd, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1
• Shapovalov in ’25 US Open 3rd Rd, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3
For the record, Sinner had lost his only previous match against Shapovalov going into their third-round encounter by five-sets in the first round of the 2021 Australian Open, and doubled up this time around taking an early 5-2 lead to capturing the first set by holding and breaking once more after the Italian caught 5-all,
But Sinner came back breaking at love in the seventh game of the second set to evening at a set apiece, but Shapovalov bounced back breaking him early in the third for a 3-0 lead.
That’s when the world No. 1 displayed the Sinner greatness as to why he is the world No.1 to stumping the Canadian by drawing on his vast reserves to changing the game trend to conquering the next nine games in a row to run away with the third set and lead 3-0 in the fourth, and the two held from there until it was all over.
Sinner later explained his tougher-than-usual scoreline:
“Well, it’s normal, you know,” he said. “You cannot always go with the scoreline easy. Every match is so difficult. Every challenge is so difficult. Then there are players that have more qualities or potential, you know, and he’s one of them. I mean, when he serves very well and he has very clean groundstrokes, physically very strong, he has everything to hurt players. So I knew that. I also knew that before the match.
“I mean, I was in a very difficult moment today. The scoreline was a bit against me today, but I just tried to stay there mentally. Obviously very happy to manage to win today, because it was a very important win.”
The No. 1will next face his fourth round opponent who will be either No. 14 seed Tommy Paul or No. 23 seed Alexander Bublik, who played the late match in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday night.
He’s actually lost to both potential opponents before, going 4-1 against Paul and 4-2 against Bublik. But all of his losses to them came on grass—he’s 2-0 against both the American and the Kazakh on hard courts.