Sinner, Swiatek in a hurry, Djokovic fails to impress

World number one Jannik Sinner, vying to add the US Open title to the Australian Open crown he won in January, breezed into the third round on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Alex Michelsen.
World number one Iga Swiatek charged into the US Open third round on Thursday, routing 217th-ranked Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-0, 6-1.
Earlier defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the third round of the US Open Laslo Djere retired in the third set, but said he’ll have to do better to win a fifth title on the hard courts of New York. Djokovic was up 6-4, 6-4, 2-0 when Djere pulled the plug on a gritty encounter that saw both men summon the physio to Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s not what we want to see,” Djokovic said. “He’s such a good player in these conditions and the second set should have been his, he was 4-2 up. I don’t know if (my) winning the second set probably put more burden on him.”
Djokovic notched his 90th US Open match victory, becoming the first man to win 90 at all four Grand Slams. But it was a battle until the minute Djere called it quits.
An hour and 39 minutesItaly’s Sinner on Thursday needed just an hour and 39 minutes to get past the 49th-ranked Michelsen, giving himself a match point with a crisp forehand winner down the line and polishing it off with a crosscourt forehand volley. It was his 50th win of the year.
He’ll next play Australian wild card Christopher O’Connell as he aims to stay on course for a semi-final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz, the 2022 US Open champion who won both the French Open and Wimbledon this year.
O’Connell advanced with a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci. “Very happy,” said Sinner, who beat Michelsen in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters this month.
“He’s a very tough opponent. We played each other in Cincinnati a week ago. I knew what to expect, he knew what to expect a little.”
Sinner went on to claim his fifth title of the season in Cincinnati.
A day later it was revealed that Sinner had escaped a ban despite twice testing positive for an anabolic agent in March, authorities accepting his explanation that the result was the result of inadvertent contamination.
Match lasted 65 minutes
Poland’s Swiatek, the 2022 US Open winner who is seeking to add a second title in New York to her four French Open triumphs, overwhelmed the 26-year-old qualifier, who was in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time. She needed just 65 minutes to advance to play either 25th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Elisabetta Cocciaretto for a place in the last 16.
First break of the match
Djokovic grabbed the first break of the match to take the first set 6-4 after a tense hour then sought treatment for trouble on his right side. Djere, the only player to take a set off Djokovic at last year’s US Open, gained the first break of the second set and with a 4-2 lead had two more break points that he couldn’t convert.
But Djokovic won the next six games, Djere receiving treatment on his abdomen before Djokovic closed out the second.
“Overall it was a big fight – over two hours for two sets,” Djokovic said. “I served awful. So playing without the serve, you have to grind, you have to run. I had to rely on my baseline game.”
The Serbian superstar, coming off an emotional Paris Olympics triumph, next faces Australian Alexei Popyrin, who he beat at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.
Women’s defending champion Coco Gauff overcame her own struggles on serve to beat 37-year-old Tatjana Maria 6-4, 6-0.
It was an uneven performance from 20-year-old Gauff, who has endured an erratic season since capturing her maiden major in New York. She put just 44 percent of her first serves in play and had nine double faults, but the 99th-ranked Maria couldn’t capitalise and Gauff won the last seven games to seal the win.
“I think I played well overall,” Gauff said. “I think if I could have served better that first set would have been a lot easier.”
Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, runner-up to Gauff last year, didn’t have to take advantage, polishing off Italian Lucia Bronzetti 6-3, 6-1 in an hour.
Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 victory over France’s Alexandre Muller.
Zverev next faces Argentina’s Tomas Etcheverry, whose efforts to stay hydrated backfired during his 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win over compatriot Francisco Cerundolo.
Rublev posts five-set win
Sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev and Czech Jiri Lehecka both battled through five sets to line up a third-round meeting.
Rublev, a four-time US Open quarter-finalist, beat France’s Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 while Lehecka out-lasted American Mitchell Krueger 6-7 (5/7), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5. Rublev also called medical staff after drinking so much water he felt like he had “a baby” in his stomach.
Seventh-seeded Paris Olympics gold medallist Zheng Qinwen on Thursday had to go the distance, rallying from a set down for the second straight match to beat Russian Erika Andreeva 6-7 (3/7), 6-1, 6-2.