Sinner storms into US Open quarter-finals with brutal demolition of Bublik

World No 1 Jannik Sinner produced his quickest-ever Grand Slam victory as he dismantled Alexander Bublik in just 81 minutes to reach the ongoing US Open quarter-finals.

The defending champion, who dropped his first set of the tournament in round three against Denis Shapovalov, showed no signs of vulnerability this time, racing to a 6-1 6-1 6-1 victory.

Bublik had arrived in New York as the only player in the draw not to drop serve, and the only man besides Carlos Alcaraz to beat Sinner in the past 12 months.

But his hopes evaporated immediately when he lost his opening service game and then unravelled with 13 double faults, including two consecutive underarm serves in the first set.

The Kazakh’s flamboyance drew smiles from the crowd, but he was ultimately overwhelmed by the sheer consistency and power of Sinner, who broke serve eight times in total.

Meeting the Italian at the net, Bublik could only grin: “You’re so good, this is insane. I’m not bad.”

Sinner, who extended his unbeaten run at hard-court Grand Slams to 25 matches – just two shy of Novak Djokovic’s best streak – was quick to sympathise with his opponent:

“He had a very tough match the last match. He didn’t serve as well as he usually does. I’m very happy. The first time this year I can play the night match here and it makes so, so big difference.”

The win sets up a historic all-Italian quarter-final against Lorenzo Musetti, the tenth seed who powered past Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-3 6-0 6-1 to continue his best run at a Slam.

“Italian tennis is in great form now,” said Sinner. “Lorenzo is maybe one of the biggest talents we have in our sport. From an Italian point of view, it’s great to have one Italian player in the semis.”

Elsewhere, Alex de Minaur kept his breakthrough hopes alive by defeating Swiss qualifier Leandro Riedi 6-3 6-2 6-1 to reach his sixth career Slam quarter-final.

The Australian, still searching for a maiden semi-final, will face Felix Auger-Aliassime, who backed up his upset of Alexander Zverev by ousting Andrey Rublev 7-5 6-3 6-4.

De Minaur, beaten by Jack Draper at this stage last year, said:

“I’ve always thought that the first job is to get there and give myself the opportunity. This is my sixth quarter-final, so I know what to expect. The mindset is going to be going for it. There’s no holding back.”

With Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Musetti, De Minaur, Fritz, Lechecka, and Auger-Aliassime all through, the bottom half of the men’s draw is wide open – though the top seed looks every bit the man to beat.