World No.1 Jannik Sinner was delighted after besting home favorite Tommy Paul in the fourth round of the US Open at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York on Monday. The Italian made it to the quarterfinal after beating the American in straight sets by 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-1.
Sinner admitted that the conditions were difficult for both players as it was windy however he was happy to go through to the next round. The top seed feels he couldn’t bring his best to the court because of the tough conditions.
“It’s a huge honour to play on this court here. The evening session is always very, very nice. Thanks everyone for the support, it’s amazing,” Sinner said. “I thought that we both didn’t play our best tennis. It was a little breezy, a little windy, so we tried to find our rhythm a little bit. I found it a little bit at the end of the match, but I can be very proud. Today was a tough opponent, so I’m very happy to be in the next round.”
With this win, Sinner became just the eighth men’s singles player since 2000 to reach the quarterfinal of all four majors in a particular year. The youngster admitted that he wasn’t at his best mentally in the first set.
“For sure mentally I didn’t start very well. I was a double break down in the first set. I tried to stay there mentally and for sure this today was one of the keys to win this match,” Sinner said.
“I served very well in the beginning of the match. There are some ups and downs obviously in best of five, it’s normal to have. But finding my rhythm in the end of the match hopefully helps with [it] for the next match, so let’s see.”
Sinner will take on Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinal. The Italian has a 7-5 lead against the Russian and had also beaten him in the Australian Open final earlier in the year.
“Tough match. It’s going to be a lot of rallies, so hopefully I’ll be ready physically. It’s going to be a physical match, also a mental match,” Sinner said. “I won in Australia, he then won in Wimbledon. That was five sets. So hopefully it’s going to be a good match. We’ll try to do our best on court, hopefully you guys enjoy the next one and then we’ll see how it goes.”
