Jannik Sinner cruises past Alexander Bublik to reach US Open quarter-finals

When the pair met in the quarter-final at the French Open at the start of June, Sinner produced a clinical display and came away with 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 and after the match Bublik took to social media and humorously posted his now famous quote: "I almost got him guys."

A few weeks later, they met on the grass in Halle and this time the Kazakh player got the better of the world No 1 as he notched up a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory and he then joked afterwards: "I got him, guys!"

Moments before stepping onto the court for the third installment of their 2025 rivalry at the season-ending Grand Slam, Bublik was asked what makes the Italian such a difficult player to face and he replied: "Everything. He is like an AI-generated player, but we all try to find a way to get closer to him, to beat him. I was lucky once and let's see how it goes today."

After needing four sets to beat Denis Shapovalov in the previous round, Sinner was asked about dropping a set and he replied: "I am not a machine."

He might not be a machine, but Bublik was onto something with his AI comment.

Their New York clash turned out to be even more lopsided than their French Open encounter as Sinner won 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 and Bublik again came up with a good comment during the post-match handshake.

"That's so good. I'm not bad, but you're the GOAT," he told Sinner as they shared a hug.

Bublik reached the fourth round on the back of a five-set upset victory over 14th seed Tommy Paul, but he never really got going against the four-time Grand Slam and those at Arthur Ashe Stadium didn't get to see much tennis as the match was over inside 90 minutes.

"We know each other very well. We had some tough battles, especially this year, so we know each other a little bit better now how we play," Sinner explained.

"He just said congrats and wished me all the best. He had a very tough match the last match playing five sets, finishing very late.

"Today he didn't serve as good as he usually serves, so I broke him very early in every set, which then gave me the confidence to serve a little bit better."

His next match is likely to last more than 90 minutes as it will be an all-Italian affair against Lorenzo Musetti with the 10th seed equally impressive against Jaume Munar as he won 6-3, 6-0, 6-1.

The world No 1, though, leads their H2H 2-0, having won in 2021 and 2023.

"It's great to see. Italian tennis is in great form now. We have so many players, so many different game styles," the reigning US Open champion said.

"Lorenzo is maybe one of the biggest talents we have in our sport, so I'm looking forward for this one. From an Italian point of view it's great to have for sure one Italian player in the semis." 

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