Jannik Sinner continued his strong start at the US Open with a straight-sets win over Alexei Popyrin.

Despite Popyrin, who knocked Novak Djokovic out at Flushing Meadows in 2024, posing a potential stumbling block for Sinner, the reigning champion won 6-3 6-2 6-2 in just over two hours.

Sinner broke serve in just the second game of the match to race to a 4-1 lead in the opening set, before securing the lead with his first set point.

Popyrin proved to be a bit more of a threat in the second, but failed to convert four break point opportunities in the sixth game and lost his own serve in the following game.

Sinner then cruised to victory in the third, breaking Popyrin’s serve twice to set up a third-round clash against Denis Shapovalov.

Jannik Sinner aces the Popyrin test in straights!  pic.twitter.com/hrXX019h6v

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 28, 2025

Elsewhere, ninth-seed Karen Khachanov was defeated in a five-set thriller by Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak.

The match lasted four hours and 35 minutes as the pole recovered from two sets down to win 2-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-5 7-6 (10-5).

Data Debrief: Sinner leads Italians in New York

Following his win over Popyrin, Sinner (19) has now surpassed Matteo Berrettini’s record of 18 wins at the US Open for the outright-most of any Italian at the event in the Open Era.

Sinner (24 years 8 days) is also the youngest player to claim 22 men’s singles match wins at grand slams in a calendar year since Rafael Nadal (22 years 83 days) in 2008.

The Italian is also thriving on hard courts, becoming the youngest player since John McEnroe in 1982 to win 23 consecutive men’s singles matches on the surface at grand slam events.