Everybody knows the name Jannik Sinner. The tournament’s No. 1 has been cruising through New York’s first and second rounds, rounding out a season that saw him raise his first Slam title in Melbourne.
But from a few hours up the coast in Sydney, Sinner’s next opponent waits to take him on.
Australian Christopher O'Connell, who recently had to withdraw from Roland Garros and the Olympics with a shoulder injury, is back and ready to rumble. Here’s what you need to know about the 87th-ranked 30-year-old looking for the biggest upset of his career.
He’s gone toe-to-toe with big names in the past.
Although Sinner is an especially tough challenger, O’Connell does know a thing or two about beating talented opponents.
Most recently, of course, was the upset that pushed him over the starting line in New York City this year–a triumph over No. 26 Nicolas Jarry in the first round, a Chilean player who impressively took down No. 3 phenom Carlos Alcaraz and No. 8 Casper Ruud earlier this year.
O’Connell’s personal biggest career wins, by opponent’s ranking, have been a 2023 triumph over a No. 16 Alexander Zverev in Munich and a 2022 overtaking of a No. 13 Diego Schwartzman at the Australian Open. O’Connell reached the third round in that year as a wild card. The Aussie seems to do his best work as an underdog.
Tomorrow’s challenger, Sinner, is also no stranger to O’Connell on the court–the pair’s most recent meeting was in Miami’s Round of 16 earlier this year, a match that Sinner took handily en route to nabbing that title. “He’s a good player. Good serve. Moving really well,” Sinner said of O’Connell before that match. “Tough player.”
To find the inaugural matchup that informed Sinner’s opinion on the Aussie, one has to go back to 2021. At Atlanta’s ATP 250 that year, O’Connell scrambled up through the qualifying rounds to be the player to prevail over a then 19-year-old Sinner in the tournament’s Round of 16.
He needed a break from the court–and went to clean boats in the meantime.
In 2018, plagued by knee tendonitis and a slew of other injuries, O’Connell needed a break–and he wanted it to have nothing to do with a tennis court. So, as professional tennis players do, he moved to the Australian coast to instead spend his time working at the Quays Marina in Sydney. Alongside his brother, the Aussie cleaned boats for six months, taking a moment to recharge after his seven years of being a professional player.
“I was thinking, 'Sweet, I don't have to teach anyone to hit a forehand and I can just clean boats and relax.’ That's what I did for the morning and afternoon and I'd ride my bike down to the bay,” O’Connell said back in 2020 about the aquatic time off. “I did that from February to June. It was terrible money and everyone thought I was crazy because I could get more money coaching. But I just didn't want to step on a tennis court.”
When he returned to the sport in the latter half of 2018, he had fallen outside of the top 1000. But perhaps that time off was just what he needed. By 2019’s year-end rankings, he had jumped 1065 places to settle in at 120 in the world. He kept rising to a peak of 53 just last year, and is now still camped inside the Top 100. It’s never too late to have a post-boat career breakthrough.
He’s part of an Aussie surge in New York this year.
O’Connell will make up only one-fourth of the men from Down Under rolling into this year’s third round in Queens, the first time the number has been that high for the Australian men since 1997.
The squad is headlined by Alex de Minaur, the No. 10 player who’s blazing a bright path for his fellow countrymen as he comes off quarterfinal berths at both Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
“[O’Connell] is one of the nicest guys on tour,” said de Minaur of his compatriot back in 2020. “The resilience Chris has is second to none.”
