PARIS :World number one Jannik Sinner continued his relentless pursuit of a maiden French Open title with a typically efficient 6-1 7-5 6-0 win over Kazakh showman Alexander Bublik on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals.
The near-flawless victory ensured Sinner became the first Italian man to make six Grand Slam semi-finals and extended his winning run at the majors to 19 matches after his triumphs at last year’s U.S. Open and the Australian Open in January.
“I’m very happy with how I’ve arrived in the semi-finals. The semi-finals in Grand Slams are very special, I’m looking forward to it,” Sinner said.
The retraction of Court Philippe Chatrier’s roof after a cold, rainy morning signalled the opening of the floodgates as Sinner raced into a 5-0 lead before Bublik got on the board and immediately threatened to break the top seed.
Sinner snuffed out his challenge to win the first set with ease but the 23-year-old ran into trouble in the next set when Bublik pulled out trademark drop shots from his bag of tricks and worked his opponent harder to stay level after 10 games.
“We’ve played each other a couple of times already, so we already knew what to expect a little bit. But, in other aspects, you never know how he is going to play,” Sinner added.
“I feel like he deserved to be in this quarter-final … I tried to focus on my side of the court. I was trying to play as solid as possible because he can have some ups and downs, so I just needed to stay consistent throughout the whole match.”
Bublik’s untimely dip allowed Sinner to pounce and the three-times Grand Slam champion broke before holding comfortably to stop the brave comeback of his 62nd-ranked opponent and double his advantage in the match.
The one-way traffic resumed in the third set, where Bublik hit a failed underarm serve while trying to avoid going a double break down, before Sinner tightened his grip to book a clash with Alexander Zverev or Novak Djokovic.
“We’ll watch a little bit of it for sure,” Sinner said. “As always, I’ll also try to switch my brain off because Grand Slams are always mentally tough. We all hope for a high-quality match, that’s what is important and what the fans want.”
