By Simon Jennings and Janina Nuno Rios
(Reuters) -Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek proved they are only human at the U.S. Open on Saturday and showed that even the best players in the world have to figure things out on the fly sometimes when pure talent is not enough.
Wimbledon champion Swiatek embodied the day’s theme of triumph through adversity, clawing her way back from 5-1 down in the opening set against Anna Kalinskaya before grinding out a 7-6(2) 6-4 victory.
“I’m happy that I came back and kept … figuring out and problem-solving,” Swiatek said. “For sure, it wasn’t an easy match.”
The Pole was far from her sharpest in a scrappy, error-strewn contest — nine breaks and 67 unforced errors by both players combined painted the picture of a match won through sheer bloody-mindedness rather than sublime shot-making.
Yet Swiatek steadied herself at the key moments, saving four set points in the first set and breaking late in the second to notch her 20th major match win of the season and draw level with defending champion and world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
“It’s not easy sometimes to find the solutions and to find the exact thing that will help you,” she added.
“You need to have your mind open enough to think about what you can do. Today was a pretty good day, I’d say, in terms of that, because, you know, at 5-1 or something, it’s easy to panic, and I didn’t.”
Her reward is a last-16 meeting with 13th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
World number one Sinner showed similar resolve, surrendering the opening set to 27th seed Denis Shapovalov before rallying to prevail 5-7 6-4 6-3 6-3.
The victory extended the 24-year-old Italian’s unbeaten run at hardcourt Grand Slams to 24 matches, a streak built not just on talent but on his ability to problem-solve when his best tennis abandons him.
“I’m not a machine, you know. I also struggle sometimes,” said Sinner, who was beaten by the Canadian in the opening round of the 2021 Australian Open in their only previous meeting.
“Every match is so difficult. Every challenge is so difficult.
“There are players who have more qualities or potential, and he’s one of them. I just tried to stay there mentally.”
‘DEJA VU SITUATION’
Not all the top seeds found the same winning formula.
World number three Alexander Zverev, still chasing his first Grand Slam title, saw his tournament end in frustration as Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime rallied from a set down to stun the German 4-6 7-6(7) 6-4 6-4.
While Sinner and Swiatek found ways to steady themselves, Zverev grew increasingly rattled as the match slipped away, slamming his racket in frustration as Auger-Aliassime’s fearless shotmaking turned the tide.
The extended weekend’s most intriguing battle of wills is yet to come, as Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff set up a fourth-round showdown that will dominate the Labor day headlines.
Four-time major champion Osaka overcame a mid-match wobble to overpower 15th seed Daria Kasatkina 6-0 4-6 6-3, while last year’s champion Gauff dismissed Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-3 6-1 in her most convincing performance of the week.
Organisers could not have scripted it better for U.S. fans: a showdown between two charismatic former champions six years after their memorable first meeting at Flushing Meadows.
In 2019, defending champion Osaka routed a tearful 15-year-old Gauff 6-3 6-0, then comforted her opponent and urged her to address fans in the stadium, a display of sportsmanship that delighted the crowd.
“It would be a cool kind of deja vu type of situation, but hopefully it will be a different result,” Gauff said.
Even the doubles courts reflected the theme of experience and determination, with 45-year-old Venus Williams and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez earning a 7-6(1) 6-1 win over Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi in their first tournament together.
The tournament is fast becoming a battle of attrition.
There have been nine retirements in the singles before the end of the third round, including three on Saturday alone when Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, Daniel Altmaier and Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak all withdrew.
(Reporting by Simon Jennings, Janina Nuno Rios, Amy Tennery, and Shrivathsa Sridhar in New York; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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