Jannik Sinner dug himself out of a hole to defeat Denis Shapovalov and reach the fourth round of the US Open.
The defending champion has not lost a grand slam match on hard courts for two years, but he looked in real trouble at 3-0 down in the third set with the pair locked at one-set all.
Canadian Shapovalov, who had won their only previous meeting at the Australian Open four years ago, had a chance to make it 4-0, but Sinner saved the break point and won nine games in a row on the way to a 5-7 6-4 6-3 6-3 victory.
“It was a very, very tough match today,” said the world number one. “I know Denis since quite a long time. I knew I had to play at a very, very high level. I’m very happy that I managed to win. He started off very well. I just tried to stay there mentally.”
Sinner again did not have his best serving day and, after clawing his way back from 2-5 in the opening set to 5-5, with Shapovalov unhappy about a foot fault call on a crucial point, the Italian double-faulted to lose the opening set.
Tenth seed Lorenzo Musetti has had a strong first week and he benefited from the retirement of fellow Italian Flavio Cobollo from injury in the third set of their contest.
