It was an all Italian US Open quarter-final between Defending Champion Jannik Sinner and the No. 10 seed, Lorenzo Musetti, at the glittering Arthur Ashe Stadium. Sinner, the favourite to get past his countryman, proved his superiority by a thumping 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win and stormed into the semi-finals against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The first set was finished in a hurry as Musetti struggled to get going. In the blink of an eye, Sinner had raced to 5-0 before Musetti managed to win his first game, but Sinner wrapped the set 6-1 in just 27 minutes.
The second set saw Musetti stage a strong fight and kept with Sinner till he lost his serve at 4-4, and Sinner finished off the second set at 6-4.
In the third, Musetti lost his serve twice over, before Sinner steamrolled over the third set to win 6-2 and with it the match.
Sinner served extremely well in the match, much better than in his previous matches. With 10 aces and not a single double fault, Sinner cut down on his unforced errors. There were no free points available. Sinner won a staggering 91% of points on his first serve, which made life difficult for Musetti.
Musetti had his moments too, and particularly in the second set, matched Sinner stroke for stroke and played some fine shots to get the crowd going. In the third set too, with nothing to lose, Musetti played a few gems. But in the end, his intermittent flashes of brilliance had no impact on the destiny of the match.
The stark difference between Sinner and Musetti was their ability to play big points. Sinner was far ahead on this parameter. It can be gauged from the fact that Sinner converted 5 of the 6 break points he had against Musetti, while Musetti could not convert even a single break point from the 7 he had against Sinner. That summed up the match.
When in trouble, Sinner just came up with the goods, and his brilliant serving bailed him out. Musetti, on the other hand, struggled on big points. Sinner proved a much tougher player when it came to temperament and focus, and raised his game the moment he was required to do so. That is the difference between Sinner and the rest of the competition in Tennis.
The World No. 1 did not sweat much for the victory and conserved his energy for the semis to be played against the belligerent Auger-Aliassime. The Canadian, after losing the first set against Australian Alex de Minaur, came back strongly to win in 4 sets, including two tie-breakers, in a highly entertaining match. The scoreline read 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6 in favour of Aliassime.
It is over to the Semi-Finals now.
Read Quick, Read Better @ rizkhan.in
Visit Sports FACTory YouTube Channel