MASON, 19 Aug: Top-ranked Jannik Sinner outlasted Alexander Zverev in a third-set tiebreaker Sunday to reach the Cincinnati Open final, while No. 1 Iga Swiatek fell to No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka in the women\u2019s semifinals.
\nIn the final Monday, Sinner will play American Frances Tiafoe, and Sabalenka will meet American Jessica Pegula.
\nSinner emerged with a 7-6 (9), 5-7, 7-6 (4) victory after 3 hours, 7 minutes, tying Casper Ruud for the ATP Tour lead by reaching his fifth final of the season. In the late match, Tiafoe rallied to beat 15th-seeded Holger Rune 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
\nSinner leads the tour with four titles this season.
\nThe first set against Zverev lasted more than an hour and the match also was suspended for 30 minutes by rain.
\nZverev, the No. 4 seed, had won four straight meetings against Sinner. Sinner finished with a 124-121 edge in total points.
\n\u201cI think we both raised our level when it counted,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cThe tiebreaker can go both ways. I just tried to stay there mentally. Obviously, I\u2019m happy to be in the final.\u201d
\nSinner, who\u2019s been dealing with a right hip issue, was seen grabbing that area early in Sunday\u2019s match but said he came through fine physically.
\n\u201cSometimes I feel it,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cI have to check after this tournament here. I haven\u2019t had too much time to recover before coming here. I\u2019m not worried yet. I\u2019m happy to play.\u201d
\nSabalenka reached the final in Cincinnati for the first time with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Swiatek, ending the five-time Grand Slam winner\u2019s 15-match winning streak and avenging losses in the finals in Madrid and Rome.
\n\u201cReally happy with the win, especially against Iga, who is always a tough battle,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cTo get the win in straight sets, that\u2019s kind of an achievement for me.\u201d
\nSwiatek, who\u2019s been on top of the WTA rankings for 116 weeks, was satisfied with her week in Cincinnati.
\n\u201cI pretty much did better than I expected, honestly, especially on this surface,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cI\u2019m happy with the result anyway, and already focusing on what I need to do to feel even better in New York.\u201d
\nThe US Open begins Aug. 26. Swiatek won the title in 2022.
\nPegula, the No. 6 seed, beat Paula Badosa 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 after their semifinal was suspended more than an hour by rain.
\nShe is the third American to reach the finals in Canada \u2014 where she successfully defended her title last Monday \u2014 and Cincinnati in a calendar year, the first since Serena Williams in 2013.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of great battles in the past,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cShe\u2019s a great player. Going to be another great match.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MASON, 19 Aug: Top-ranked Jannik Sinner outlasted Alexander Zverev in a third-set tiebreaker Sunday to reach the Cincinnati Open final, while No. 1 Iga Swiatek fell to No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka in the women\u2019s semifinals. In the final Monday, Sinner will play American Frances Tiafoe, and Sabalenka will meet American Jessica Pegula. Sinner emerged with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}