Jannik Sinner qualified for the round of 16 of the US Open on Saturday. This isn’t usually big news for a No. 1 seed, but after what happened in the third round, nothing can be taken for granted.
The Italian beat unseeded Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, dominating an overmatched opponent in just under two hours. He posted 46 winners to O’Connell’s 18, plus 15 aces, and didn’t even allow a break point.
And yet his most impressive point might have been the one he lost.
The win leaves Sinner as the favorite to win the tournament at +125 odds at BetMGM. While he was the tournament’s top seed, No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 2 Novak Djokovic were both entered at better odds, which was no surprise given that they had won all the Grand Slams in the last two years, with the exception of Sinner’s victory in the 2024 Australian Open.
And then, well, the whole tournament went wrong.
Thursday, Alcaraz lost to unseeded Botic van de Zandschulp in one of the biggest upsets in recent tennis history.. Tennis’ most electric player seemed unplugged from the start and ended up losing in straight sets.
In a sport where elites rarely lose to non-elites in Grand Slam tournaments, this represents a huge development. SO Djokovic also lost to No. 28 Alexei Popyrin. The defeat left the Serbian without a Grand Slam in a year for the first time since 2017, and also ended a streak of him, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal winning at least one Grand Slam every year since 2002.
“It shows how tennis is. It’s very unpredictable. When you lose just a small percentage, the result is huge,” Sinner told ESPN after his match.
The 2024 US Open will also be the first Grand Slam without the Big 3 in the round of 16 since the 2004 French Open, a streak of 81 tournaments.
That leaves Sinner, with No. 4 Alexander Zverev (+350) and No. 5 Daniil Medvedev (+400) as the top dogs remaining. Next is No. 12 Taylor Fritz at +1200, which would make him the first American to win a singles Grand Slam since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open.
This is a good position for Sinner, especially after entering the tournament under a cloud of controversy stemming from his two positive tests for a banned anabolic steroid. The 23-year-old avoided a suspension after his camp convinced the International Tennis Integrity Agency that the drug entered his system through a massage.
Not everyone, including US Open commentator Nick Kyrgioswas convinced it was the right decision.
