WHAT HAPPENED: In Jannik Sinner's fourth US Open appearance, the No. 11 seed dismantled the resilient and talented Daniel Altmaier in a five-set showdown in Louis Armstrong Stadium Tuesday.
“I had moments where I played well. I had moments where I could have played better,” Sinner said of his 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 first-round victory. “There were some fun points … and now it’s about trying to recover in the best possible way.”
After ceding the first set to Altmaier, Sinner began to solve the US Open rookie’s game in the second set which he ended emphatically by winning the last four games, including 10 consecutive points to even the match at one set apiece.
In the third set, Sinner won the first eight points (making it 18 points in a row) to pull ahead 2-0. He allowed Altmaier to win one game in that set while winning 11 points of his own at the net.
Given Sinner’s momentum, Altmaier had a steep psychological hill to climb in the fourth set, but in the opening game, the German staved off triple break point to hold serve. When he broke Sinner in the fourth game to go 3-1, it proved to be pivotal as both players held serve from then on, forcing a fifth set.
In the fifth, Sinner saved four break points in the third game, to rousing applause. He subsequently broke Altmaier twice and served out the match with an ace and a forehand winner.
WHAT IT MEANS: Last year, Sinner reached the fourth round here, and the US Open remains the only major in which the 21-year-old Italian hasn’t reached the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals of the 2022 Australian Open, he was stopped by Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. In the 2020 French Open quarterfinals, he lost to Rafael Nadal. At Wimbledon this summer, he lost his quarterfinal to the eventual winner, Novak Djokovic, in five sets.
MATCH POINT: Sinner’s next opponent will be the 6-foot-7 American qualifier Christopher Eubanks, who competed for Georgia Tech before turning pro in 2017.
