Italian professional tennis player Jannik Sinner showed no mercy at the Cincinnati Open, overpowering Felix Auger Aliassime to storm into the semi finals.
The World No. 1 crushed the 23rd with a score of 6-0, 6-2 in just 71 minutes, extending his winning streak on hard courts to 25 matches. It was his first tournament since winning his fourth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, but there were no signs of rust.
Sinner started and ended the match with a run of six games in a row, leaving Auger Aliassime, who had beaten him twice before, with no answers. The Italian capitalised on 29 unforced errors from his opponent and controlled the contest from start to finish.
“I felt great on count today, tomorrow I have a day off, and I’ll get some practice in before the semis,” Jannik Sinner said.
With this win, Sinner joins Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray as the only players this century to record 25 straight victories on hard courts.
His next challenge will be French qualifier Terence Atmane, who stunned seventh seed Holger Rune with 6-2, 6-3. The 23 years old Atmane said reaching the semi- finals and breaking into the Top 100 was “pretty insane” and an emotional movement in his career.
In other results, Canadian Open champion Ben Shelton defeated Czech seed Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-4 to set up a quarter final clash with German third seed Alexandar Zverev. “I’m hungry and in a good rhythm. I want to prove myself every time I’m on court,” he said.
