Cincinnati Masters: Sinner survives rough conditions, avenges Montreal loss to Rublev

In the middle of a point at 4-4 in the second set, Jannik Sinner lost his footing — seemingly blown right over by extreme wind. Nonetheless, Sinner got up, continued a long rally and eventually won it with a forehand winner past Andrey Rublev.

It was a microcosm of the match as a whole.

Sinner was down and close to being out for much of the way on quarter-final Saturday at the Western & Southern Open, but he recovered to prevail 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. The world No 1 avenged his recent Montreal quarter-final loss to Rublev after two hours and 26 minutes.

Sinner was well less than 100 percent because of a hip injury during last week’s setback against Rublev. There were no obvious signs of the same issue this time around, but the top seed played way below his best level — perhaps in part due to the brutal conditions. He found himself one game from defeat when Rublev held at 4-4 in the second despite losing the point in which Sinner fell to the ground. However, Sinner held at 4-5 to stay in the match and took the next two games to force a decider.

It was all Sinner in the third, as he raced to a two-break advantage. Rublev got one of the breaks back but could not strike twice when his opponent served for victory at 5-4.

Sinner will face the winner of the match between German Alexander Zverev, the No 3 seed, and American Ben Shelton, the No 12 seed.

Ahead of Saturday’s victory the Italian beat American qualifier Alex Michelsen (6-4, 7-5) and got a walkover from Australian Jordan Thompson.

Despite the loss, Rublev’s productive hard-court summer continued with wins over China’s Zhizhen Zhang (6-4, 6-3) and American wild card Brandon Nakashima (7-6 (5), 6-1).

Cincinnati Masters 1000, other quarter-finals results:

• Jack Draper vs. Holger Rune
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Alexander Zverev vs. Ben Shelton

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