Jannik Sinner\u2019s relentless winning run on hard courts has continued, as he ended the dream run of world No 136 Terence Atmane to secure his place in the Cincinnati Open final.<\/p>\n
The world No 1 toasted his 24th birthday in style as he beat Atmane 7-6(4), 6-2 to reach his eighth ATP Masters 1000 final on a day when he was not always at his best.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a> appeared to be struggling with illness or an injury at times as he found a way to get past Atmane, with this latest win securing his 200th tour-level win on hard courts as he extended his unbeaten streak on the surface to 26 matches.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very, very tough challenge,\u201d said Sinner. \u201cEvery time you play against something completely new, it\u2019s difficult, but playing against this guy in the later stages of a tournament is even more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pressure is higher and you know they deserve to be there\u2026 He has beaten incredible players throughout his wins.<\/p>\n Why Jannik Sinner will miss out on major Bonus Pool payday due to an ATP Tour rule<\/a><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner among the star names set for a share of $18.3 million cash windfall<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI knew that I had to be very careful, and my mindset was in a good spot. I felt like I handled the situations on the court very well.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was serving incredibly well in the first set. He has huge, huge potential, and I think we saw that in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n Sinner\u2019s latest win ensured he fended off a rising Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the ATP Rankings<\/a> and he went on to take part in a jovial post-match interview on the tennis channel, where he was given a birthday cake to toast his special day.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always here on my birthday and it is a special place,\u201d said Sinner. \u201cI made a good present to myself. Everything went very well today.\u00a0It\u2019s going to be very special to play in a final on Monday here.\u201d<\/p>\n Atmane may have been frustrated after pressing Sinner hard in the opening set, but the Frenchman should be encouraged by the best week of his career so far.<\/p>\n He is on course to rise a stunning 67 places in the updated ATP Rankings to a new career high of No 69 and he will be a player to watch when he takes up his place in the main draw at the US Open later this month.<\/p>\n As for Sinner, he will look to defend his Cincinnati title on Monday before a rapid turnaround the next day, when he is due to be in New York for the US Open mixed doubles, where he is due to team up with America\u2019s Emma Navarro.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen how realistic it is for Sinner to travel from Cincinnati to New York for what feels like an exhibition event at the US Open site on Tuesday, with the Italian set to make a call on his participation over the next couple of days.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz thrashed, Emma Raducanu shines, Iga Swiatek storms back \u2013 early US Open predictions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner faces a big US Open decision after reaching Cincinnati final<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jannik Sinner\u2019s relentless winning run on hard courts has continued, as he ended the dream run of world No 136 Terence Atmane to secure his place in the Cincinnati Open final. The world No 1 toasted his 24th birthday in style as he beat Atmane 7-6(4), 6-2 to reach his eighth ATP Masters 1000 final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n