NEW YORK – Janik Thinner broke for the first time in the first week of the US. The opening set has been dropped. I was also late in the third set.
“I’m not a machine,” he said Saturday with a hint of smiles. “I’m struggling too.”
Still, Thinner is the number one player in men’s tennis and won the last three Grand Slam tournaments on the hard court, so no one was surprised to see him threw out some laps to beat No. 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday to take title defense in the fourth round.
“Pressure and tension are normal for me. I’ve had it for a year and you need to handle it,” Thinner said. “You either handle it or you don’t.
On Monday, the Sinner will face No. 23 Alexander Babrik in the quarter-finals spot. Bublik lasted long in the third round of the US Tommy Paul 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-7 (5), and 6-1.
Thinner’s latest victory secured 10 consecutive rounds of 16 major appearances, extending his hardcourt unbeaten run in the slam to 24 matches, covering the championships at the US Open in 2024 and at the Australian Open in 2024 and at the Australian Open in 2024 and 2025.
But the set streak of the sinners in New York is over. He was making the 14th straight claim as he lost one in a victory over 2021 champion Danil Medvedev in the quarterfinals a year ago.
The sinner explained that his serve did not feel that he was correct on Saturday, and Shapovalov read it well.
“We were able to put pressure on Janik today,” Shapovalov said.
The Sinner double faulted to close the opening set, but previously featured an astonishing 30 stroke point where both men hit drop shots. Thinner took that point by returning to the baseline and twisting his body, delivering the winner of Rob, floating out of Shapovalov’s reach.
After even rebounding the match on the set, Thinner realized that Shapovalov had 3-0, pushed Love 30 to third place, after scoring 14 of his 17 points.
“A critical moment” the sinner will say later.
From there he took nine games in a row to grab control.
“We were grabbing the toes all the way to the toes. It was a very close match. A lot of the games were very close,” said Shapovalov, a left-handed Canadian who was a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2021. “He handled it very well. He handled it very well.
No. 7 seed Novak Jjokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz both sit in the lower half of the draw, so Sinner looks to be the first male player to defend his title with the Flushing Meadows since Roger Federer (2004-2008) so there is no major champion left in his half.
Earlier on Saturday, Switzerland’s World No. 435 Leandro Riedy became the worst man to make 16 rounds at Wimbledon in 2002 with 1,093 No. 1,093 Richard Krazisek.
Reedy is also the first man since Shapovalov in 2017 to reach the second week of the US after entering zero major match wins.
Other men who moved Saturday included Felix Auger Aliasim of Canada. He knocked off Spanish third seed Alexander Zverev and No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti.
Also, it was Alex de Minaurus who advanced through his retirement. He led Daniel Altmeier 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4, 2-0 when the Germans stopped playing in the fourth set due to a thigh injury. De Minaur will make his fifth career the fourth appearance at the US Open, tie Rod Laber, John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall to become the second appearance by Australian men since the start of the 1968 era.
No. 15 Andrey Rublev needed five sets, but passed qualifying Coleman Wong 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.
