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In the week one of the US Open 2025, Italy`s tennis star Jannik Sinner got broken for the first time. He dropped the opening set during the match.
Sinner, who is currently the number one-ranked player in men`s tennis rankings, has managed to win the previous three Grand Slam events on hard courts.
In the US Open match, he managed to secure a win by 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 against the 27th-ranked Denis Shapovalov. With this win, he has now advanced to the round of 16 and will lock horns against Alexander Bublik.
Speaking about the match, with a smile on his face, he said, “I`m not a machine, you know. I also struggle, sometimes”.
“That I have pressure and tension is normal. I`ve had that for a year, and you need to handle it,” he added.
The Italian then said that a player needs to handle the pressure in such circumstances.
“Either you handle it or you don`t. It`s better to have to deal with that than not,” said Sinner.
The win also helped him stretch his hard-court win streak at major events to 24, which also includes the US Open 2024, and the Australian Open titles in 2024 and 2025.
He also defeated Carlos Alcaraz and clinched the Wimbledon title on the grass court in July.
But Sinner`s set streak in New York ended; he had claimed 14 in a row since dropping one in a victory against 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals a year ago.
Sinner explained that his serve did not feel quite right on Saturday, and that Shapovalov was reading it well. “I was able to put pressure on Jannik today. So who says that another player can`t do the same?”, Shapovalov said.
Jannik Sinner double-faulted to close the opening set, which earlier featured a remarkable 30-stroke point in which both men hit drop shots. Sinner took that point by sprinting back to the baseline and twisting his body to deliver a lob winner that floated just out of Shapovalov`s reach.
After rebounding to even the match at a set apiece, Sinner found himself trailing 3-0, love-30 in the third after Shapovalov grabbed 14 of 17 points.
(With AP Inputs)
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