US Open: Sinner defeats Sonego with ease for spot in third round, sets up Wawrinka showdown

No 6 seed Jannik Sinner beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the third round of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

With the win, Sinner improves his head to head against Sonego to a perfect 3-0, having already defeated his compatriot in Halle and Montpellier this year.

In a tournament where many of the men’s seeds already, it’s a refreshing change to see the Italian go about his business in a no-frills manner, getting the job done in two hours an five minutes with minimal drama. Across the match, Sinner struck 27 winners and 15 unforced errors compared to Sonego’s 19-22 tally, while also capitalising on 50 percent of break points.

“It’s good start for the Open and hopefully I can keep going” – Sinner 

“I think it was a great performance. It was a little bit windy today, so it was not that easy to play, but I felt very good on court. I served with quite good percentage, which today was very important,” Sinner said after the win. “I think also the return worked really, really well. I think this today were the keys. Very happy.”

Sinner has not dropped a set in his first two rounds and is happy to reach the third round comfortably. “If you can get through in three sets each is better obviously. You have more time to recover. Playing first today helps the recovery, because today I have a full day basically, and also tomorrow. If you play night match, it is a little bit different. You have less time to recover. But, if you win like this, a little bit over two hours, it’s good start for the Open and hopefully I can keep going.” the Italian said.

Sinner, ranked No 6, will face the winner Swiss Stan Wawrinka next. The 22-year-old won against German Yannick Hanfmann in a similar fashion (6-3, 6-1, 6-1) ahead of his victory.

In the previous round of the Flushing Meadows tournament, Sonego, ranked No 39, defeated American qualifier Nicolas Moreno De Alboran (6-3, 6-4, 6-2).

New York (Grand Slam), other second-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Christopher O’Connell
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Lloyd Harris
• Felipe Meligeni Alves vs. Sebastian Baez
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Daniel Evans
• Gael Monfils vs. Andrey Rublev
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Alex Michelsen
• Yibing Wu vs. Alex De Minaur
• Yu Hsiou Hsu vs. Cameron Norrie
• Arthur Fils vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Andy Murray vs. Grigor Dimitrov: thursday
• Jack Draper vs. Hubert Hurkacz: thursday
• Michael Mmoh vs. John Isner: thursday
• Alexander Zverev vs. Daniel Altmaier: thursday
• Taylor Fritz (9) beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 6-1, 6-2, 6-2
• Frances Tiafoe (10) beat Sebastian Ofner: 6-3, 6-1, 6-4
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Casper Ruud (5): 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 0-6, 6-2
• Jakub Mensik (Q) beat Titouan Droguet (Q): 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (21) beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo: 6-1, 6-4, 6-3
• Tommy Paul (14) beat Roman Safiullin: 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3
• Rinky Hijikata (WC) beat Marton Fucsovics: 6-1, 6-2, 6-1
• Ben Shelton beat Dominic Thiem: 7-6 (1), 1-0 ret.
• Adrian Mannarino (22) beat Fabian Marozsan: 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1
• Jiri Vesely beat Francisco Cerundolo (20): 7-6 (5), 6-2, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (6)
• Novak Djokovic (2) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 6-4, 6-1, 6-1
• Benjamin Bonzi (WC) beat Christopher Eubanks (28): 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7)
• Aslan Karatsev beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Laslo Djere (32) beat Hugo Gaston (Q): 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
• Borna Gojo (Q) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• Dominic Stricker (Q) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (7): 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-3