Jannik Sinner continued his ceaseless march toward the US Open final with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over compatriot Lorenzo Musetti in Wednesday night’s quarterfinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Sinner, the defending champion, needed just two hours to dispose of Musetti under the lights at Ashe, a veritable marathon compared to the one hour and 21 minutes he required to dispatch Alexander Bublik in the fourth round.
The World No. 1 has now reached the semi-finals in each of the last five grand slams he has competed in, also reaching the semi-finals in the last four hardcourt slams.
He has dropped just one set en route to the last four this year—in a third-round match against Denis Shapovalov, when he looked momentarily human. He has gone back to his robotic self ever since, however, dropping just ten games across the fourth-round and quarter-finals meetings with Bublik and Musetti in an ominous message to semi-final opponent Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Sinner described his victory over Musetti as a “great performance” and said he was particularly happy with the fast start he made to the encounter.
“From my point of view, it was a great performance, very solid. Especially starting very, very well in the match,” Sinner said in an on-court interview after disposing of Musetti on Wednesday night.
That statement somehow downplays just how good Sinner was in the opening set, with the Italian dropping just five points in the first five games of the set to race into a 5-0 lead. He would clinch the first set in just 27 minutes.
Musetti did raise his level in the second set, which made for a more even contest, but it never really felt like he could win the big points against the four-time grand slam champion, despite the half-hearted efforts of an Arthur Ashe crowd that just wanted to see more tennis.
Sinner struck in the ninth game of the set to take the all-important break and comfortably held serve to take an unassailable two-set lead, which appeared to be the cue for a large chunk of the Ashe crowd to head for the exits.
If Sinner’s two-set advantage did not precipitate a mass exodus, then his early break in the third set surely did.
The World Number 1 struck in the very first game of the third set to put the final nail in Musetti’s coffin, again winning five consecutive games across the end of the second set and the beginning of the third.
Musetti did bring up four points to break back immediately, but even with the feeble backing of the increasingly sparse Ashe crowd, he could not convert any of them.
Instead, Sinner ruthlessly crushed any faint hope of a Musetti comeback and eventually held serve to remove any seed of doubt. He would break again to put an extra sheen on what was another eye-catching victory for the World Number 1.
Auger-Aliassime, who has produced impressive victories over Alexander Zverev and Alex De Minaur to reach the last four, will still need to up his level considerably if he is to have any chance of even taking a set off Sinner when the pair clash on Friday night.
