NEW YORK — 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 US Open quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Sinner’s victory took just 1 hour, 21 minutes, the second-shortest completed men’s match in the tournament. A first-round victory for Tomas Machac was a minute shorter.
“At times I felt like today I was playing some great tennis, and I managed to break him very early, which then gave me the confidence to serve a little bit better and play from the back of the court a bit better,” Sinner said.
“It was a faster, or a fast match.”
Sinner lost to Bublik in June in Halle, Germany, in a warmup tournament before Wimbledon, but that was played on a grass court. Trying to beat the defending US Open champion on a hard court is a different story — and almost impossible these days.
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Sinner, who also won the past two Australian Open titles, extended his win streak at the hard-court Grand Slams to 25 matches, tying John McEnroe for the fifth-longest streak by any man.
Sinner’s three dropped games are the fewest in a second-week match at Flushing Meadows since the semifinals in 2015, when Novak Djokovic defeated Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. It tied the fewest games lost in Sinner’s major career (6-0, 6-1, 6-2 vs. Jiri Lehecka in the 2025 French Open third round).
Sinner faces fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No. 10 seed, on Wednesday, in what will be the first time two Italian men have met during the second week of a major in the Open era. 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 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 told Sinner at the net that “I’m not bad.”
But he wasn’t nearly good enough against Sinner, who had an 86-46 advantage in points won. Bublik helped by committing 13 double-faults.
Sinner noted that Bublik had a late finish Saturday night in his five-set victory over No. 14 seed Tommy Paul, and tried to test his energy level Monday in his first night match of this tournament.
“I tried to move him around, trying to see how he moves, trying to put it more on the physical side,” Sinner said. “Today I played some good tennis at times. At times he gave me some free points.”
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.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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