New York (AFP) – With Carlos Alcaraz suffering a shock second round loss, the top half of the US Open draw makes attractive reading for world number one and top seed Jannik Sinner. The Australian Open champion had been set to face 2022 champion Alcaraz in the semi-finals, but the Spanish star slumped to a shock exit at the hands of Dutch journeyman Botic van de Zandschulp on Thursday. Sinner looks to take advantage on Saturday when he faces Australia’s Christopher O’Connell for a place in the last 16.
Also in action are 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev, women’s world number one Iga Swiatek, and Karolina Muchova, who knocked out two-time champion Naomi Osaka in the second round. AFP Sport looks at three matches to watch on day six of 2024’s final Grand Slam, which will conclude on September 8 (x denotes seeded player):
**Jannik Sinner (ITA x1) v Christopher O’Connell (AUS)** — Sinner, who racked up his 50th match win of the year by defeating Alex Michelsen on Thursday, looks to make the last 16 in New York for a fourth successive season. On Saturday, the Italian faces 87th-ranked O’Connell, who plays with a one-handed backhand. O’Connell has reached the third round of the US Open for the first time, an achievement which would have seemed a distant dream in 2018 when he stepped away from tennis to work as a boat cleaner.
“I was thinking, ‘Sweet, I don’t have to teach anyone to hit a forehand and I can just clean boats and relax,'” he recalled. “That’s what I did for the morning and afternoon and I’d ride my bike down to the bay. It was incredibly frustrating because I was 23 at the time and life was going so quickly. I felt like I hadn’t gotten anything from the game yet and hadn’t reached my potential. But I always had in the back of my mind that I was going to get back out there once I was healthy and ready.” O’Connell defeated Sinner in their first meeting in Atlanta in 2021, before the Italian swept to victory when they clashed again in Miami earlier this year.
**Iga Swiatek (POL x1) v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS x25)** — Swiatek, the 2022 champion, secured a season-leading 55th win of 2024 by routing Ena Shibahara on Thursday, dropping just one game. On Saturday, she takes on 33-year-old Pavlyuchenkova who will have revenge on her mind after suffering a 6-0, 6-0 blowout when she met Swiatek in their only other previous meeting on the Rome clay last year. Pavlyuchenkova is a vastly experienced Grand Slam campaigner, making the 2019 French Open final as well as seven other quarter-final appearances. One of those came at the US Open in 2011 where she was stopped by Serena Williams.
**Flavio Cobolli (ITA x31) v Daniil Medvedev (RUS x4)** — The often eccentric Medvedev was champion in New York where he thwarted Novak Djokovic’s bid for a rare calendar Grand Slam. Medvedev has made at least the fourth round at the US Open in each of the last four years and was runner-up to Djokovic in 2023 after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals. The 22-year-old Cobolli, one of four Italians to make the third round, is looking to reach the last 16 of a Slam for the first time. Cobolli nominates clay as his favourite surface but demonstrated his ability on hard courts by reaching the Washington final last month.
© 2024 AFP
