ESPN News Services
Sep 1, 2025, 09:00 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Jannik Sinner dominated the only player other than Carlos Alcaraz who has defeated him this season, routing Alexander Bublik 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Monday night to return to the US Open quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Sinner's victory took just 1 hour, 21 minutes, the second-shortest completed men's match in the tournament. A first-round victory for Tomas Machac was a minute shorter.
Sinner lost to Bublik in June in Halle, Germany, in a warmup tournament before Wimbledon, but that was played on a grass court. Trying to beat the defending US Open champion on a hard court is a different story -- and almost impossible these days.
Sinner, who also won the past two Australian Open titles, extended his win streak at the hard-court Grand Slams to 25 matches, tying John McEnroe for the fifth-longest streak by any man.
Sinner's three dropped games are the fewest in a second-week match at Flushing Meadows since the semifinals in 2015, when Novak Djokovic defeated Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. It tied the fewest games lost in Sinner's major career (6-0, 6-1, 6-2 vs. Jiri Lehecka in the 2025 French Open third round).
Sinner will face fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No. 10 seed, on Wednesday. The other quarterfinal that day will pit No. 8 Alex De Minaur against No. 25 Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Bublik, the No. 23 seed from Kazakhstan, had been one of the hottest players with an ATP Tour-leading 11 straight victories and three titles, which is tied for the second best this year behind Alcaraz's six.
He had won all 55 service games coming into this match, yet Sinner broke him eight times.
Bublik could only smile at times, including after the match, when he told Sinner at the net that "I'm not bad."
Sinner made him look that way, though, with an 86-46 advantage in points won. Bublik didn't help himself by committing 13 double-faults.
Sinner improved to 35-4 this year. Alcaraz beat him in the French Open final and also in Rome and Cincinnati -- where Sinner was ill and had to stop playing in the first set.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
