US Open: Imperious Sinner cruises past O’Connell to make fourth round

Italian Jannik Sinner, the top seed, moved into the last 16 of the US Open by defeating Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

It was a clinical performance from start to finish from the world No 1, who simply outclassed O’Connell. The Australian was appearing in his first third-round match at the US Open, and was largely powerless to stop an imperious Sinner from cruising to a comfortable win.

The Italian broke five times in total, while his opponent failed to generate a single break point opportunity.

“For sure today was a great match. I knew I had to play very solid throughout the whole match,” Sinner said in his on-court interview.

“We played a few times. The serve was working well today. I’m happy about my performance. Obviously thanks everyone for the support. It’s been amazing.

“As we see anything can happen in this sport. I try to stay on my side of the net. Taking it day by day. Each opponent is a tough challenge.

“Trying to enjoy every moment on the court. There have been a couple of upsets. Let’s see what’s coming. I’m happy to still be here and hopefully play as many matches as possible.”

Sinner, ranked No 1, will face the winner of the match between Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo and American Tommy Paul, the No 14 seed, next.

Earlier in the tournament, the Italian won against American Mackenzie McDonald (2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2) and American Alex Michelsen (6-4, 6-0, 6-2).

O’Connell, ranked No 87, won against Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No 26 seed (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3) and Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci (6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3) in the previous rounds of the US Open.

New York (Grand Slam), other third-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 75.000.000, most recent results first):

• Flavio Cobolli vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Alex De Minaur vs. Daniel Evans
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Jordan Thompson
• Nuno Borges vs. Jakub Mensik
• Gabriel Diallo vs. Tommy Paul: saturday
• Jack Draper (25) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Tomas Machac beat David Goffin: 6-3, 6-1, 6-2
• Alexander Zverev (4) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin (28) beat Novak Djokovic (2): 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
• Brandon Nakashima beat Lorenzo Musetti (18): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Casper Ruud (8) beat Juncheng Shang: 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Francisco Comesana: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Grigor Dimitrov (9) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat Jiri Lehecka (32): 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
• Frances Tiafoe (20) beat Ben Shelton (13): 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3