Jannik Sinner gave fans a performance worth their time and monies at the Margaret Court Arena on Sunday morning ET. The World No.4 overcame some resistance from Russia’s Karen Khachanov to make it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2024, with a 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. Sinner is set to face the winner of the Round 4 match between Australian favorite Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev. But one particular stat is sure to make the Italian now a huge favorite to win the title.
Racing into the second week @janniksin is yet to drop a set on his way to his second AO quarterfinal #AusOpen • #AO2024 • @wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis pic.twitter.com/XyRpXgADfc
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2024
Many would think that the top 3 players in the world, i.e. defending champion-cum-World No.1 Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev would be the favorites to be the semifinalists and anyone of those would win. All the three have hard court Grand Slam titles to their name and as a result, shown their prowess enough on this surface.
Interestingly, all the 3 have dropped at least one set in their journeys so far. Novak Djokovic lost a set each to Dino Prizmic (Round 1) and Alexei Popyrin (Round 2) respectively, even as the Serb won in straight sets against his following two opponents, T Etcheverry and Adrian Mannarino to make it to the quarterfinals too. While Carlos Alcaraz has been more impressive than his big rival, losing his only set in his first 3 rounds so far, against Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in Round 2.
It remains to be seen how Alcaraz performs against the unseeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in his Round 4 clash on Monday early morning ET. On the other hand, Daniil Medvedev has had it tougher than the only two players ranked above him. Medvedev lost his first set of the tournament to Terence Atmane in the first round and was then pushed to a 3.40 am finish in a 5-setter against Emil Ruusuvouri of Finland in the second round.
The Russian’s fans will be delighted with his straight sets win over Felix Augur-Aliassime in Round 3, even as he still needs to battle the Nuno Borges threat in Round 4. Borges was the man to knock out the in-form Grigor Dimitrov from the Australian Open 2024.
World #4 Jannik Sinner plays another incredible match to beat 2023 semifinalist Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 and reach the QFs at the #AusOpen for the 2nd time.
6th time into GS QFs.
Only Men’s player yet to drop a set. Nobody is playing even close to his level. pic.twitter.com/xptDBautWM
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) January 21, 2024
So it makes Jannik Sinner the only player in the top 10 rankings to have not dropped a set at the time of writing this report, at the Australian Open 2024. To be fair to the three players mentioned above, Sinner has had a much easier run in the competition so far. The only major challenge for him was his Sunday clash against the experienced Khachanov, but he passed that test with flying colors as well. For his opponents, the scary part is Jannik Sinner winning all these matches hardly without breaking any sweat.
Surely, the Jannik Sinner match on Sunday must have been watched by Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev alongwith their data analysts respectively. Sinner will play the winner of the de Minaur vs Rublev clash in the quarterfinals and additionally, both those players also have dropped at least one set in the tournament so far. If Alexander Zverev and Hubert Hurkacz are considered as well, they too have difficult runs until now at the Australian Open 2024.
The only two seeds in the top 10 to be knocked out are Stefanos Tsitsipas and Holger Rune.
