No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy outlasted German Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, in a marathon of a match on Sunday, picking up a 7-6 (9), 5-7, 7-6 (4) victory to advance to the final of the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.
It took Sinner 3 hours, 7 minutes to knock off Zverev, who entered Sunday on a four-match winning streak against the Italian.
Sinner will now have a chance to secure his fifth title of the season, which would be the most on tour.
“It means a lot to me. It’s a very different moment, what I’m going through, so I’m very happy about this result,” Sinner said. “The physical aspect, of course, I have to improve, because if I want to win Grand Slams or a bigger title, I have to be, for sure, more in shape. But I just tried to stay there mentally, which I’m very proud (of), and let’s see what’s coming (Monday).”
Sinner and Zverev collected 37 winners, but Zverev had more unforced errors (29-22). Sinner had 12 aces against just one double fault, while Zverev finished with 15 and five, respectively.
After dropping a grueling first-set tiebreaker, Zverev went on to force a third set, where he went up 5-4 on Sinner. The World No. 1 responded by taking three of the next four games to force another tiebreaker, and Zverev never led in the extra session.
“Sometimes you have to play a bit with the gut feeling. And I think this today was, my strength,” Sinner said. “(There were) some ups and downs, which can happen, especially when you play (for) more than three hours.
“It was a good match, I think for both of us. He served very, very well, so I can be very proud.”
Next up for Sinner will be American Frances Tiafoe, who fought for a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) upset of No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark to reach the final.
Tiafoe had his back against the wall in the third set, falling behind 5-2 before winning three games in a row to seize the momentum. He eventually outlasted Rune in a tiebreaker, making him the first American to reach the Cincinnati Open final since John Isner accomplished the feat 11 years ago.
“Crazy, crazy. That last set was nuts,” Tiafoe said. “It got pretty breezy there at the end, so we were kind of just playing the percentages. But yeah, I got really lucky there. I had a couple net cords, but I also battled. I competed really hard and put myself in position.”
Winston-Salem Open
Hungarian Marton Fucsovics and Aleksandar Vukic of Australia both rallied past their respective opponents for first-round wins in North Carolina.
Fucsovics beat Japan’s Taro Daniel 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, while Vukic prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 against Great Britain’s Daniel Evans. Frenchman Arthur Cazaux and Croatia’s Borna Coric also won their first-round matches.
Other winners Sunday included Belgian Zizou Bergs, wild card Christopher Eubanks of the United States and Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild.
–Field Level Media
