Jannik Sinner battled injury and a stunning second-set burst from Felix Auger-Aliassime to set up a third straight Grand Slam final against Carlos Alcaraz.
The two greatest players of their generation will face each other in Sunday’s US Open final. Alcaraz won at the French Open, Sinner got him back at Wimbledon and now they will complete the trilogy, becoming the first duo in the Open Era to contest three Slam finals in a single season.
Alcaraz comfortably beat Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final and is the first player since Roger Federer a decade ago to reach the final here without dropping a set. Sinner has now dropped two – both to Canadians.
Denis Shapovalov took a chunk out of him in the third round and Auger-Aliassime gave him an almighty scare too, before the Italian came through 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
After a hesitant opening, Auger-Aliassime played a near-perfect second set. His serve was lethal – five aces and landing his first serve a clip of 76 per cent – and he was looking for his forehand more aggressively, dancing round his backhand to find his big weapon.
Sinner called for the trainer at the end of the set and headed off court for treatment to his abdominal muscles.
World No.1 Jannik Sinner prevailed in his US Open semi-final match on Friday night
The Italian beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 after battling through injury
The victory sets Sinner up with a third straight Grand Slam final against Carlos Alcaraz
That was a problem, but his bigger issue was the level of his opponent. For all his travails, what Auger-Aliassime has always had is incredible natural athleticism. His ability to slide to the forehand side and slice the ball back into play was Alcaraz-esque.
His level of performance was not sustainable, however, and even as Sinner’s first-serve continued to misfire he cruised through the third set.
It was quite a significant slump in Auger-Aliassime’s performance – did he have another magic set in him to drag a potentially-injured Sinner into a fifth set?
He almost did. Despite appearing to cramp at the end of the third set, Auger-Aliassime came out firing again.
He had a break point at 2-1 and had Sinner pinned deep in the backhand corner, only for the world No1 to produce an almost impossibly angled winner.
An extraordinary shot, one that deserved to be a turning point – and was. Sinner broke himself and served out this high-class contest.
Now the tennis world awaits another epic between the two best players in the world.
