Top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner, playing on his 24th birthday, ended French qualifier Terence Atmane’s remarkable run at the Cincinnati Open with a 7-6(4) 6-2 victory on Saturday, advancing to the final of the U.S. Open warm-up event.
In the other semi-final, Carlos Alcaraz secured a 6-4 6-3 win over German third seed Alexander Zverev, who struggled physically, setting up a rematch of this year’s French Open and Wimbledon finals.
Sinner won 91% of his first-serve points, did not face a single break point during the 86-minute match, and converted two of five break points in his first career meeting with world number 136 Atmane.
“Very, very tough challenge,” Sinner said on court after the crowd serenaded him with “Happy Birthday.” “Every time when you play against someone completely new it’s very difficult.”
The Italian world number one faced a tightly contested first set, featuring dominant serving from both players and no break point opportunities. Sinner lost just three points on serve in the opening set and held to love for a third consecutive game to force the tiebreak, where Atmane gave the opening point to Sinner with a double fault.
From there, the Italian never looked back.
In the second set, Sinner opened with a nine-minute hold of serve, then held to love before breaking for a 3-1 lead, giving him the cushion he needed. Another hold to love followed, putting him 4-1 up and ending Atmane’s hopes, despite the Frenchman’s run to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final, which included victories over top-10 players Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune.
With Atmane serving to stay in the match, Sinner quickly jumped to 0-40 and sealed the win on his third match point when the Frenchman sent a forehand into the net.
Alcaraz’s semi-final against Zverev was briefly interrupted for 11 minutes while paramedics attended a spectator. Play resumed with Alcaraz saving three consecutive break points to reach 2-2. He broke for a 4-3 lead with a brilliant low backhand volley and closed the first set on serve.
Alcaraz broke early in the second set but quickly gave the break back, gifting four double-faults to Zverev, who was visibly struggling physically and sat against the back wall in pain. Alcaraz then held to love to go 5-3 and sealed the match with a break at love.
“Happy for the final but feeling bad for Sasha,” Alcaraz said, addressing Zverev. “Wish you all the best.”
