NEW YORK (AP) — Jannik Sinner dominated the only player other than Carlos Alcaraz who has defeated him this season, routing Alexander Bublik 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Monday night to return to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Sinner's victory took just 1 hour, 21 minutes, the second-shortest completed match in the tournament. A first-round victory for Tomas Machac was a minute shorter.
Sinner lost to Bublik in June in Halle, Germany, in a warm-up tournament before Wimbledon, but that was played on a grass court. Trying to beat the defending U.S. Open champion on a hard court is an entirely different story — and almost impossible these days.
Sinner has won 25 straight Grand Slam matches on that surface, including the last two Australian Open titles, along with his first U.S. Open trophy last year.
He will face fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No. 10 seed, on Wednesday. The other quarterfinal that day will pit No. 8 Alex de Minaur against No. 25 Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Bublik, the No. 23 seed from Kazakhstan, had been one of the hottest players in tennis, with an ATP Tour-leading 11 straight victories and three titles, which is tied for the second-best this year behind Alcaraz's six.
He had won all 55 service games coming into this match, yet Sinner broke him eight times.
Bublik could only smile at times, including after the match, when he appeared to tell Sinner that he's not that bad of a player.
Sinner improved to 35-4 this year. Alcaraz beat him in the French Open final and also in Rome and Cincinnati — where Sinner was ill and had to stop playing in the first set.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
