No. 1 seeds Sinner, Swiatek move into third round at US Open; Alcaraz, Osaka eliminated

New York: Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner flashed their No. 1 form with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the U.S. Open.

Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka couldn’t quite find the games that once had them on top of the rankings.

Those past U.S. Open champions were both knocked out Thursday night, with the No. 3-seeded Alcaraz’s 15-match Grand Slam winning streak halted by a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp.

Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1, finishing off the match in 65 minutes. It took the 2022 U.S. Open champion longer than that to play the second set of her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes.

“I just felt the rhythm was much better,” Swiatek said. “I was a bit tense in my last match, so today I just wanted to focus on the right things.”

Earlier, Sinner downed Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in 1 hour, 39 minutes.

But on the same Arthur Ashe Stadium court at night, Osaka’s forehand faltered in key moments and the two-time U.S. Open champion was eliminated by Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Sinner dropped the first set in his opening match in New York but didn’t encounter much trouble while facing his second straight American on Ashe. The Italian earned his 50th victory of the season, including his ATP Tour-leading 30th on hard courts.

His previous one was a little shaky after a slow start against Mackie McDonald, so Sinner got in a practice session after that match and was happy with the results Thursday.

“Trying to keep going, trying to understand what works here best on these courts. Let’s see what I can do in the next round,” he said.

That will be against Christopher O’Connell of Australia on Saturday.

No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, moved into the third round along with No. 10 Alex de Minaur, who will next face Dan Evans. Evans’ victory in a tidy 2 hours, 37 minutes was three hours quicker than it took him to beat Karen Khachanov in the first round, their match setting a U.S. Open record by lasting 5 hours, 35 minutes.

Sinner beat Michelsen for the second time this month, having also won a second-round match in Cincinnati shortly before it was revealed that he tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid

in March.