New York [US], August 29 (ANI): World No. 1 Jannik Sinner registered a comfortable victory over Alexei Popyrin in the second round of the ongoing US Open tennis tournament 2025 on Thursday. He won the game in three straight sets, defeating his opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

'It was a very, very solid performance. I felt like we both didn't serve very well today, so we had a lot of rallies from the back of the court, where I felt quite comfortable today. Obviously, I'm very happy to be in the next round,' said Sinner in his post-match press conference as quoted by the ATP Tour website.

Sinner, aiming to become the first man to successfully defend the US Open singles title since Roger Federer in 2008, now holds a 33-4 record for the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

After winning the Australian Open in both 2024 and 2025, and lifting the US Open trophy last year, the 24-year-old Italian is on a 23-match winning streak at hard-court tournaments.

By drawing level with Popyrin at 1-1 in their Lexus ATP head-to-head series, Sinner has also kept his hopes alive of retaining the World No. 1 ranking after the US Open.

To prevent Carlos Alcaraz from reclaiming the top spot, the Italian must outperform the Spaniard in New York, with Alcaraz currently ahead by 60 points in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

Earlier in the first round of the competition, Sinner registered a comfortable victory over his unseeded opponent, Vit Kopriva, in three straight sets on Tuesday and advanced into the next round of the ongoing US Open 2025 tournament.

The men's singles defending champion won 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to progress in a cool 1 hour, 39 minutes against his Czech opponent, who was playing in the main draw for his first time, as per Olympics.com. (ANI)