Jannik Sinner faced his sternest test of the US Open so far when he came from a set down to defeat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in four sets in a hard-fought third-round encounter at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Sinner had raced through the opening two rounds of the competition with comprehensive straight-sets victories over Vit Kopriva and Alexei Popyrin, dropping just 11 games across the two matches, but he found a much gamer opponent in Shapovalov.
The Canadian 27th seed deservedly took the opening set 7-5 after an irresistible 53 minutes that saw him produce stunning winners off his forehand and backhand, with Sinner broken for the first time in the tournament.
It was a level that he could not sustain; however, despite moving 3-0 in the third set, the match level was at one set apiece. That appeared to be a wake-up call for Sinner, who rattled off nine straight games to take control of the match, before closing out a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory in three hours and 11 minutes.
Speaking on-court after the four-set victory, Sinner described the encounter as a “tough match” and said he needed to reach a “high level” to overcome Shapovalov, who won the only previous meeting between the pair when he defeated Sinner in five sets at the 2021 Australian Open.
“I have known Denis for a long time, last time we played was years ago and we’ve both improved so much since then. I knew I had to play to a good level today. He started well and I tried to stay there mentally,” Sinner said after defeating Shapovalov.
Sinner, who was admittedly far from his best early on, looked dumbfounded when he double-faulted on set point to hand Shapovalov the set.
The World Number 1 got back on track in the second set, with Shapovalov paying dearly for a solitary lapse midway through the set. The Canadian produced four consecutive unforced errors on his own serve with the set level at 3-3, allowing Sinner to bring up – and convert – the only break point of the set.
Shapovalov appeared to have rediscovered his groove in the third set, however, and quickly raced into a 3-0 lead courtesy of an early break. He even brought up a break point on Sinner’s serve to move up a double-break in the set, but Sinner crucially found some big shots to stave hold serve and would never look back in the set – or the match.
The Italian broke back in Shapovalov’s next service game, somewhat controversially opting to change his footwear midway through the game with the score level at deuce.
Sinner eventually secured the break when Shapovalov produced back-to-back unforced errors and subsequently broke the Italian twice more to turn the third set on its head.
He secured an early break in the fourth – again courtesy of back-to-back Shapovalov unforced errors at deuce – and rarely looked like relinquishing his hold on the contest.
Shapovalov did bring up a break point when Sinner was serving for the match at 5-3, but the Italian found three big serves in succession to quickly snuff out any faint hopes of a comeback.
