World No. 24 Alexander Bublik came into the US Open on a high, having won the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad and the recently concluded Generali Open. However, his run at Flushing Meadows came to an early end at the hands of World No.1 Jannik Sinner, against whom he lost 6-1,6-1,6-1 in straight sets.

Bublik, who had previously won against Sinner in a warm-up tournament before Wimbledon, lost in a mere 121 minutes, closing out the second-shortest match at the US Open thus far this year. The loss will come as a huge disappointment, especially because Bublik seemed optimistic about his chances before the match.

“I guess everything. He is like an AI-generated player, but you know we all try to find a way to get to him and get closer to beating him, and I was lucky once, so let’s see how it goes today,” he said pre-game when asked what it was that made Sinner such a difficult opponent to play against. 

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Bublik is the only player this year, apart from Carlos Alcaraz, to have defeated Sinner. The win came in Hale, Germany, on grass. However, Sinner is a different beast on hardcourts and has now won 25 straight games on the surface. This includes the previous two iterations of the Australian Open as well as the 2024 US Open.

Sinner lost three games against Bublik, the fewest in a US Open second-week match since Novak Djokovic beat Marin Cilic in the 2015 semifinals. Regardless, the Kazakh has every right to be disappointed, considering he committed 13 double faults. Bublik came into this game having won 55 straight service games, yet the defending champion broke him eight times. 

Sinner will now take on the No. 10 seed Lorenzo Musetti, who qualified for the quarters after beating Jaume Munar 6-3,6-0,6-1 in straight sets. The Italian is now on his way to becoming the first back-to-back US Open winner since Roger Federer won five in a row from 2004-08.