US Open: An outsider makes Sinner sweat a lot

It was a bizarre first round match for Jannik Sinner that he fought against the German Daniel Altmaier on Tuesday evening (CEST) in New York. Bizarre because for the South Tyrolean it was a hike between extremes. Sometimes Sinner made world-class points, sometimes made hair-raising mistakes, sometimes he played cat and mouse with his opponent, sometimes he let him get back into the game far too easily. But in the end it's the result that counts: And after 3.35 hours, Sinner is the winner of the five-set match (5:7, 6:2, 6:1, 3:6, 6:1).

The Sesto team thus moves into the second round. There he will meet the US qualifier Christopher Eubanks (ATP 145) on Thursday, who surprisingly knocked the Spaniard Pedro Martinez (ATP 54) out of the tournament at the start. Altmaier surprises the favorite But back to Sinner’s first round match. The Pusterer, who is in 13th place in the ATP rankings, was the big favorite against Daniel Altmaier, after all his competitor is 93rd in the world rankings. And: The German is currently playing a real horror season, having played 23 games on the ATP tour he was only able to win five. There was initially no sign of this lack of form on Tuesday at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second largest arena at the US Open.

Played a really strong match: Daniel Altmaier. © APA/getty/ELSA

The 23-year-old from Kempen immediately played on an equal footing with Sinner. The South Tyrolean found it difficult to get going, often made overly complicated decisions and made a noticeable number of mistakes (13). Especially towards the end of the first set, which the strong Altmaier surprisingly won after a break. Sinner scores 19 points in a row The German has thus poured a lot of fuel into Sinner's tank. As if bitten by a tarantula, the 21-year-old from Sesto went into the second set, which he dominated - as he later also did in the third section - at will. Above all, the constant changes in rhythm and the precise baseline strokes brought Altmaier to the brink of despair. Sinner even scored 19 (!) points in a row across all sets - that's an incredible value.

South Tyrol's reigning athlete of the year was ahead 2-1 after sets, against an opponent who was hanging on the ropes like a defeated boxer. So a “gwarned Wiesn”? No! Because Altmaier didn't give up, regained his self-confidence point by point and also pulled out one or two magic hits from his repertoire. Meanwhile, Sinner got the worm, which is why Altmaier took the set 6:3 and forced a decisive fifth round. The sticking point There, Sinner promptly got into trouble again when he was 0:40 behind on his own service in the third game. But the youngster fended off a total of four break chances, grabbed the game to make it 2-1 and then made the break clear himself - with the most beautiful rally of the entire match. That was the crux of the matter: “Jan” was now back in the flow, shouting his joy again and again, mobilizing the fans - and finally was able to celebrate his victory after 3.35 hours.

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US Open: An outsider makes Sinner sweat a lot

Jannik Sinner fulfilled his duty at the US Open and moved into the second round. However, he had a lot more trouble in Flushing Meadows Park than he would have liked.

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