It was after losing in the US Open final last year that Jannik Sinner said he needed to be less predictable if he was to beat Carlos Alcaraz more regularly. Moving forward, finishing points at the net, he added, would help him against all opponents.
For a while in his third-round encounter with Jenson Brooksby here, it seemed as if Sinner had forgotten all about his own advice. With the exception of a bounce smash, he barely ventured towards the net in the first set, happy enough to crank his huge groundstrokes from the baseline instead. In the second set, though, something clicked. The Italian won 11 out of 11 points at the net and even served and volleyed four times, winning all four. Note to self: get forward.
With a two-set lead, the world No 1 felt comfortable enough to go back to his baseline game in the third and was good value for his victory, winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours, 13 minutes. He’s through to the last 16 for the fifth straight year and the win cements his status as the strong favourite, not least with Alcaraz missing through injury. He’ll play Shintaro Mochizuki, the former junior champion who upset the Spanish teenager Rafael Jódar in four sets.
“Very happy about the win,” Sinner said. “Trying to improve every day. Small step forward today [but] trying to get better. If I want to go far in this tournament, couple of things I need to handle better, but all in all, very happy. He’s a very tough opponent.”
The only glitch came when Sinner was broken when he served for the match at 5-3 in the third set, perhaps bringing back memories of his collapse at the same stage of his second-round match at Roland Garros last month. But he righted the ship in the following game, cupping his hand to his ear after forcing a third match point – unusually demonstrative for him – and then finishing things off when Brooksby sent a forehand long.
Asked what prompted that gesture, Sinner laughed. “I don’t know,” he said. “Very unusual, but I needed that today. I was a break up, trying to serve out, couldn’t, then had a couple of match points, couldn’t use them and I tried to rush to the finish line. It helped me today. Thanks for pushing me. I’ll try to be the best I can in a couple of days’ time and see how it goes.”
A brilliant junior – he won the US Nationals title at the age of 17 – Brooksby was in the third round for the second time, four years after his first visit, the same year he reached his career-high ranking of 33. He received an 18-month ban in late 2023 for missing three anti-doping tests in a year, later reduced to 13 months on appeal, and since his return at the start of 2025, has worked his way back inside the world’s top 100 to his current mark of 81.
Brooksby was diagnosed with autism as a young child, but didn’t announce it publicly until last year, going on to explain how he had learned to first cope with and then enjoy big crowds and noisy atmospheres. An unorthodox player who uses two hands on the slice backhand, he thrilled the crowd with some brilliant tennis at times against Sinner, hitting flashing returns, blistering forehands and showing some lovely touch. Grass looks to be a good surface for him.
Brooksby was left to rue a few missed break chances at the start of a tight opening to the second set, and Sinner stepped things up from that moment on, breaking to love to lead 4-3 and again to double his lead. Brooksby broke in the opening game of the third but Sinner quickly levelled and despite the blip at the end, ran out a confident winner.
Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff reached the last 16 for the first time with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over the former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev.
