With trademark ruthlessness and efficiency, Jannik Sinner stormed into the second round of the US Open.<\/p>\n
The world No 1 needed just 98 minutes and dropped just four games with a dominant performance inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium<\/a>, dispatching Vit Kopriva without barely breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n The reigning US Open champion, and the winner of the last three hard-court Slams, it comes as no surprise to see Sinner<\/a> earmarked by most as the title favourite this fortnight.<\/p>\n However, after a paint-by-numbers round one for the Italian, things should \u2013 and likely will \u2013 get tougher when he returns to court on Thursday.<\/p>\n Sinner will be the favourite to dispatch Alexei Popyrin <\/a>when they meet, though the Italian will have to do something he has never done before: beat the world No 36.<\/p>\n It has been over four years since the sole meeting between Sinner and Popyrin, a match won by the Australian at the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n A 7-6(5), 6-2 victory in the Spanish capital remains the only time that Popyrin, a big-hitting 26-year-old from Sydney, has ever tested himself against the Italian.<\/p>\n Naturally, a lot has changed for Sinner since then, with the 24-year-old now a four-time Grand Slam champion with over 60 consecutive weeks as the world No 1.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic makes admission about his records as he offers advice to younger generation<\/a><\/p>\n Former world No 1 calls for Daniil Medvedev to be \u2018severely\u2019 punished after \u2018ridiculous\u2019 US Open behaviour<\/a><\/p>\n However, plenty has changed for Popyrin as well in the past four years.<\/p>\n Unexpectedly, the Australian hit the peak of his career just last summer, with a string of extraordinary results in North America.<\/p>\n With the odds stacked against him, Popyrin \u2013 ranked 62nd in the world \u2013 became the fourth-lowest-ranked player to win a Masters 1000 title<\/a> at the 2024 Canadian Open.<\/p>\n That was followed by a career-best run to the fourth round of the US Open, famously stunning defending champion and recent Olympic gold medallist Novak Djokovic in four sets.<\/p>\n Beating Djokovic remains the finest win of his career, and his showdown against Sinner will likely see him return to the scene of that victory: the Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n Many would be overawed by playing inside the largest arena in tennis, but the Australian is not one to be overawed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve walked out onto Arthur Ashe before, so I know what to expect of that stadium,\u201d said Popyrin.<\/p>\n \u201cI think walking out against Novak, I think it was a little bit different for me because I played him in two previous occasions that year and both in Slams.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then again, you\u2019re walking out onto a big stadium and you\u2019re playing one of the top guys in the sport and I think that\u2019s the moments that I relish.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the moments where I kind of come out and play some of my best tennis, and I\u2019m hoping I can do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n Defeat to Alexander Zverev in this year\u2019s Canadian Open quarter-finals saw Popyrin, who has a career-high of world No 19, drop significantly down the ATP Rankings at precisely the wrong time.<\/p>\n Popyrin heads into the US Open as the world No 36, just missing out on a seeding for the men\u2019s singles event.<\/p>\n He was in convincing form against Emil Ruusuvuori in the opening round, but now faces taking on the world No 1 as early as round two.<\/p>\n Popyrin certainly faces an uphill task, but there are certainly reasons for optimism.<\/p>\n Expectations on the Australian will be lowered considering his opponent, though he will still have the confidence and belief to cause a seismic shock.<\/p>\n And, as he put it himself, he will be by no means overawed by facing the very best.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cJannik\u2019s is the best in the world and is one of the best for a reason.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you know, I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not too, I don\u2019t feel too starstruck by the occasion. I think I\u2019ve been in that position before. I think last year is a great example of it.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, for me, I feel like if I, if I can stick to my, if I can stick to my game, if I can play the way I want to play, then I can cause trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: 2025 US Open: Points being dropped by Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz<\/a><\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner\u2019s next US Open match could be his toughest test of Week 1<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With trademark ruthlessness and efficiency, Jannik Sinner stormed into the second round of the US Open. The world No 1 needed just 98 minutes and dropped just four games with a dominant performance inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, dispatching Vit Kopriva without barely breaking a sweat. The reigning US Open champion, and the winner of […]<\/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-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","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=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018I don\u2019t feel too starstruck by the occasion\u2019<\/h2>\n
US Open News<\/h2>\n