This story was originally published by Dead Spin
No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy outlasted German Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, in a marathon of a match on Sunday, picking up a 7-6 (9), 5-7, 7-6 (4) victory to advance to the final of the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.
It took Sinner 3 hours, 7 minutes to knock off Zverev, who entered Sunday on a four-match winning streak against the Italian.
Sinner will now have a chance to secure his fifth title of the season, which would be the most on tour.
“It means a lot to me. It’s a very different moment, what I’m going through, so I’m very happy about this result,” Sinner said. “The physical aspect, of course, I have to improve, because if I want to win Grand Slams or a bigger title, I have to be, for sure, more in shape. But I just tried to stay there mentally, which I’m very proud (of), and let’s see what’s coming (Monday).”
Sinner and Zverev collected 37 winners, but Zverev had more unforced errors (29-22). Sinner had 12 aces against just one double fault, while Zverev finished with 15 and five, respectively.
After dropping a grueling first-set tiebreaker, Zverev went on to force a third set, where he went up 5-4 on Sinner. The World No. 1 responded by taking three of the next four games to force another tiebreaker, and Zverev never led in the extra session.
“Sometimes you have to play a bit with the gut feeling. And I think this today was, my strength,” Sinner said. “(There were) some ups and downs, which can happen, especially when you play (for) more than three hours.
“It was a good match, I think for both of us. He served very, very well, so I can be very proud.”
Next up for Sinner will be No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark or American Frances Tiafoe, who were scheduled to play later Sunday.
Winston-Salem Open
Hungarian Marton Fucsovics and Aleksandar Vukic of Australia both rallied past their respective opponents for first-round wins in North Carolina.
Fucsovics beat Japan’s Taro Daniel 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, while Vukic prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 against Great Britain’s Daniel Evans. Frenchman Arthur Cazaux and Croatia’s Borna Coric also won their first-round matches.
Three more matches were set to start later Sunday, including two that featured Americans.
–Field Level Media
