NEW YORK: Italian tennis sensation and Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner has managed to stay alive in US Open 2024.
The Italian top seed cruised into the fourth round of the final grand slam of the year by thrashing Australia's Christopher O'Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in a comfortable third round victory.
The 23-year-old seems to be in fine form as he shifted gears smoothly to power into the second week, where he will be up against the world No.14, home-favourite Tommy Paul.
Off the court, Sinner had faced a major scare as he tested positive twice in March for the banned steroid Clostebol. Fortunately, he was cleared of fault or negligence by an independent tribunal, leading into the final Grand Slam of the year.
This development sent social media into a frenzy and also created a rift over cold indifference and calls of favoritism and unfairness.
However, the differences were laid to rest as the spectators at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre gave him a rousing welcome in a massive show of support.
Sinner typically refused to be swayed by opinions on social media, which swings between extremes.
"Everyone reacts in a different way," he said. "If I lose today some (hate ) messages are coming in, but I try to be as less as possible on social media because of that. It's like when you live something positive then you see compliments and then when you lose, you see something a bit more negative, but that's how everything works," Sinner remarked.
"We always try to do our best. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose," he said of an athlete's journey. "As I said, there are always going to be some people who are going to talk in a negative way, but that's also why you have family, you have the close people who know you as a person, I just stick them because they give you the real values," he added.
Meanwhile, his rivals and tournament favourites Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were knocked out of the US Open in the first week itself, sending shockwaves across the tennis world.
"This sport is unpredictable," Sinner said of Djokovic's and Alcaraz' early exits in New York. "Whenever you drop a little bit of your level, mentally, tennis-wise or physically, it has a huge impact on the result."
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