Jannik Sinner Loses Record but Proves His World Number One Position With US Open Win

Jannik Sinner has been unstoppable this season, but Denis Shapovalov’s aggressive play became troubling. In the third round of the US Open, Sinner’s service did not fall the way he wanted. Reading them well, the Canadian broke his serve for the first time in week one at the event. Shapovalov took a quick lead of 5-2 to pressure his opponent. Although Jannik Sinner had a break chance in the later stages of the first set, he failed to convert it. Sinner double-faulted to close the opening set that his opponent swept away 7-5. But the Italian is a world No. 1 for a reason, right?

Although he trailed a little in the third set too, Sinner took the match 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. The Italian won despite the pressure, but Shapovalov was able to achieve one thing in the loss. The Tennis Letter tweeted the update, “Shapovalov wins the 1st set 7-5 against Jannik Sinner at the U.S. Open. Denis came out SWINGING. He snaps Jannik’s streak of 17 consecutive sets won in hard court Slams. Excellent start against the world #1. 👀”

Last year, when Sinner defeated the 2021 champion, Daniil Medvedev, in the quarterfinals, he began a streak at the US Open. Until his first set dropped against Shapovalov, he had won 14 consecutive sets in New York, 17 on hard court Slams. With his tenth successive win yesterday, Jannik Sinner is now the youngest player to reach the men’s singles round of 16 at the US Open in five consecutive years since Lleyton Hewitt (23 years 187 days) in 2004.

He has now won 20 of the last 21 sets he has played in the hard-court Slams, and is the fourth youngest man to have 20 match wins in all four Grand Slams. And Sinner knows this win came with a challenge.

While sharing his thoughts about this stunning victory, Sinner said, “It was a very, very tough match today. I’ve known Denis for quite a while, so I knew that I would have to play at a high level today. I’m very happy that I managed to win. He started off very well.”

How confident is the defending champion before entering the second week, though? Well, for Jannik Sinner, the second week is completely different. But he claimed that he is now looking forward to the next match. “It’s getting tougher and tougher, physically and mentally; it’s all different. Very happy to be in the 2nd week again. It’s a special place for me for many years,” he added.

The 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, Shapovalov, too, shared his thoughts, saying, “We were going toe to toe. It was a very close match. A lot of games were very close. He’s No. 1 for a reason. He dealt with it really well. He fights extremely well. He did a tremendous job to turn it around down 3-0 in the third there.”

Do you think Sinner can defend his title and keep dominating despite the pressure? Follow the actions at the US Open in real-time with EssentiallySports’ Live Blog updates.