Jannik Sinner continued his march toward a second consecutive US Open title on Wednesday night, dispatching the 10th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours flat in the first ever all-Italian men’s quarter-final at a grand slam tournament. The world No 1 and top seed in New York was tested only in flickers but proved unmovable, saving all seven break points he faced while converting five of his six opportunities. The result laid bare once again the gulf between Sinner’s metronomic consistency and the rest of the field, even when confronted with a compatriot armed with one of the most elegant backhands in the sport.
Sinner burst from the gate, taking the first five games from an unsettled Musetti and pocketing the opening set in just 27 minutes. His depth and weight of shot locked his fellow Italian into defensive exchanges, and while Musetti produced stylish winners in spurts, they were outweighed by errors both unforced and otherwise. The second set was tighter. At 1-2, Sinner erased the only early danger with a 129mph unreturnable serve out wide before holding with a thunderous ace. Musetti went break point down in the fifth game after succumbing in an 18-shot rally only to escape with the hold to stay on serve. But serving at 4-4, 30-40, he double-faulted to gift the advantage to Sinner, who calmly served it out after the change of ends for a two-set lead.
The lack of tension in the match led to some poor crowd behavior – the customary din of conversation in Arthur Ashe Stadium even more distracting than normal, spectators going to and from their seats outside changeovers, the actor John Turturro at one point taking the place of a camera operator to delight of nearby fans – but Sinner’s composure never wavered, his game as mechanical as the No 7 trains rattling by within earshot.
By the start of the third, Musetti’s resistance was fading. He was broken in his opening service game and immediately under siege again. To his credit, he manufactured four break-point chances in the very next game and another two at 3-2, but Sinner repelled all of them with a mixture of poise and precision. When Musetti was broken again late in the set, the contest was over, Sinner sealing victory at love with a pair of aces.
The statistics lent numerical context to the one-way traffic. Sinner won 42 of 46 first-serve points (91%), finished with 28 winners to 17 unforced errors, never lost his serve and maintained an iron grip whenever danger loomed. Musetti struck 12 winners but sprayed 22 errors, undone as much by his failure to capitalize on rare openings as by Sinner’s relentless ball-striking. The 24-year-old has now dropped just 38 games in five matches, the second-fewest by a man to reach the US Open semi-finals since 2020. It was also his 26th consecutive win at majors played on hard courts, a streak that moved him above John McEnroe and now ranks alongside Novak Djokovic and Ivan Lendl as the third-longest in history.