No. 1 seeds Sinner, Swiatek move into third round at US Open; Alcaraz, Osaka eliminated

Earlier, Sinner downed Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in 1 hour, 39 minutes

Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner flashed their No. 1 form with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the U.S. Open. Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka couldn’t quite find the games that once had them on top of the rankings.

Those past U.S. Open champions were both knocked out Thursday night, with the No. 3-seeded Alcaraz’s 15-match Grand Slam winning streak halted by a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp.

Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1, finishing off the match in 65 minutes. It took the 2022 U.S. Open champion longer than that to play the second set of her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes.

“I just felt the rhythm was much better,” Swiatek said. “I was a bit tense in my last match, so today I just wanted to focus on the right things.”