Lajovic upsets Sinner, Medvedev crushes Musetti in Cincinnati
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Dusan Lajovic beat Jannik Sinner 6-4 7-6(4) to reach the Cincinnati Open third round.
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Serbian Dusan Lajovic upset world number six Jannik Sinner 6-4 7-6(4) to reach the Cincinnati Open third round on Wednesday, as Daniil Medvedev cruised past Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 6-3 6-2 and Stefanos Tsitsipas beat American Ben Shelton.
The 66th-ranked Lajovic struck 20 winners in a confident performance to claim his fourth win over a top-10 player this year and next faces American Taylor Fritz, who comfortably beat Italy's Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 7-6(1).
Sinner earned his first Masters 1000 title days ago in Toronto but was unable to keep the momentum alive, failing to convert any of the five break point chances he had across the match.
"I obviously knew that it was going to be tough because whenever you are playing somebody who is in great form and has a lot of confidence, they play well in the important moments," Lajovic said.
Lajovic converted his lone break point opportunity in the seventh game of a pristine first set in which neither player made many mistakes and kept the momentum going in the second before taking it on the tiebreak.
Former champion Medvedev, who also beat Musetti at last week's Canadian Open before losing in the quarter-finals, broke the Italian twice in each set and won 82% of his first-serve points en route to victory in 77 minutes.
"We both made some mistakes, we both made some double faults and stuff like this," third seed Medvedev said during his on-court interview.
"But I managed to be a little bit better in the important moments and I felt like I was playing better and better during the match so that's a positive thing and I'm looking forward for the next round."
Medvedev wobbled early as he failed to hold serve in the opening game but it did not unsettle the tall Russian as he responded immediately with a break at love and struck again in the eighth game before serving out the first set.
Musetti did well to claw back from 0-40 down to hold for a 2-1 lead in the second but Medvedev responded in style with a love hold and broke the Italian's serve on the next two opportunities before closing out the match.
Australian Open finalist Tsitsipas dropped only three first-serve points to beat Shelton 7-6(3) 7-6(2) and set up a meeting with Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, who ended Borna Coric's title defence.
"We didn't play a lot of rallies today, which was difficult to get into the rhythm," said Tsitsipas. "He was serving big today, he wasn't giving me a lot to work with and I had to hang in there, wait for my chances."
Novak Djokovic, hoping to draw level with Margaret Court's all-time record haul of 24 Grand Slam titles by winning the U.S. Open, kicks off the night session against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
