Jannik Sinner had an unexpected challenge during his latest match against Canada’s Gabriel Diallo at the Cincinnati Masters.
The world No.1 took to the court later than scheduled due to the late finish of Taylor Fritz’s match against Lorenzo Songego, which was halted for 75 minutes due to a power outage. Fortunately, there were no electricity issues for Sinner when he was playing, but in the second set, there was a delay of several minutes after a fire alarm went off. Eventually, both he and Diallo agreed to continue playing despite the noise, contesting four points before it stopped.
Amid the unusual circumstances, Sinner managed to prevail 6-2, 7-6(6), after saving a set point in the tiebreak. He is currently on a 23-match winning streak on hardcourt’s, with his last loss being to Carlos Alcaraz at the 2024 China Open. Furthermore, he now has a 46-0 record against players outside the top 20 on the surface since losing to Dusan Lajovic at the same tournament two years ago.
“I feel like today was a very difficult day at the office,” Sinner said. “He was serving very well, especially in the second set. Against big servers you always have to find the right balance at the back of the court.
“Today I struggled a bit at times. But still very happy. I need these tough matches… getting used to very difficult situations. I’m very happy this happened before a Grand Slam.”
Sinner’s next test will be Adrian Mannarino, who came through qualifying and has beaten two seeded players in the draw. The Frenchman has beaten Tomas Machac in the second round and Tommy Paul in the third round. At the age of 37, Mannarino is the 6th-oldest man to reach the last 16 in Cincinnati. The oldest player to do so was Ivo Karlovic at the age of 38 years and 5 months.
In their head-to-head, Sinner leads Mannarino 3-0 and is yet to drop a set against him. The Italian is bidding to become the first player since Roger Federer in 2015 to win back-to-back titles at the Cincinnati Masters.
