By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 1, 2024
Jannik Sinner battled past Chinese hope Bu Yunchaokete to set a clash for the title with Carlos Alcaraz in Beijing.
Photo Source: TTV
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, episode 10, is here. The two forces who have claimed all four major singles Grand Slam titles in 2024 will meet for the third time in 2024 after Sinner and Alcaraz both came through in straight sets on Tuesday at the China Open.
Alcaraz took out Daniil Medvedev in the first semifinal, stretching his winning streak to four victories over the Russian with a 7-5, 6-3 win.
Sinner followed suit several hours later, dispatching Bu Yunchaokete, the first Chinese male to ever reach the semifinals in Beijing 6-3, 7-6(3).
The Italian world No.1 stretches his winning streak to 15 and remains undefeated at Beijing. He defeated Alcaraz in the semifinals last year and now owns a 9-0 lifetime record in the Chinese capital.
“Jannik is the best player in the world right now,” Alcaraz told reporters. “As I always said, I really like the battles, the toughest matches, facing the best players in the world.”
Alcaraz has handed Sinner losses at Indian Wells (in a three-set semifinal) and Roland-Garros (in a five-set semifinal) in 2024, but Sinner took their lone meeting in Beijing 7-6(4), 6-1 last October (also in the semis).
Sinner looks to even the pair’s head-to-head in the tenth lifetime meeting. Alcaraz leads the series that commenced in Paris in 2021, 5-4.
Along the way the pair have captivated fans with mindblowing tennis played at breakneck speed, and delivered several classics, including their five hour and 15-minute epic at the US Open quarterfinals in 2022, won by Alcaraz in five grueling sets.
Sinner, the winner of both hard court Grand Slam men's singles titles in 2024, improved to 59-5 on the season with his win over Yunchaokete, and 39-2 on hard courts.
Like Alcaraz, he is playing his 21st ATP final. Sinner bids for his 17th title, and he'll attempt to become the second player to successfully defend the Beijing title (along with Novak Djokovic, who did so four times), while Alcaraz bids for his 16th ATP title.