No. 1 seeds Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek move into 3rd round at U.S. Open

NEW YORK — Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner flashed their No. 1 form Thursday with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, suddenly a point from getting to a third set, Naomi Osaka lost her way, missing forehand after forehand until she ceded that game and chucked her racket, sending it clattering on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

Not much later, she was out of the tournament, eliminated 6-3, 7-6 (5) by Karolina Muchova in the second round of an event where Osaka won two of her four Grand Slam titles.

Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara, 6-0, 6-1, finishing the match in 65 minutes. It took the 2022 U.S. Open champion longer than that to play the second set of her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes.

“I just felt the rhythm was much better,” Swiatek said. “I was a bit tense in my last match, so today I just wanted to focus on the right things.”

Earlier, Sinner downed Alex Michelsen, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, in 1:39.

Sinner dropped the first set in his opening match in New York but didn’t encounter much trouble while facing his second straight American on Arthur Ashe Stadium. The Italian earned his 50th victory of the season, including his ATP Tour-leading 30th on hard courts.

His previous one was a little shaky after a slow start against Mackie McDonald, so Sinner got in a practice session after that match and was happy with the results Thursday.

“Trying to keep going, trying to understand what works here best on these courts. Let’s see what I can do in the next round,” he said.

That will be against Christopher O’Connell of Australia on Saturday.

Osaka — once ranked No. 1 but now No. 88 after missing nearly 1 1/2 years because of mental health breaks and time off to have a baby — struggled for much of the early going, dropping five consecutive games and 22 of 26 points in one stretch.

But she played much better in the second set, getting her only break of the match to lead 5-4 and yelling “Come on!” when Muchova netted a forehand. The crowd roared for Osaka.

Serving for that set, Osaka hit a 119 mph ace, her fastest of the match, to lead 40-love. That gave her three chances to extend the match to a third set. That’s when Osaka really faltered, making five forehand errors, with a double-fault mixed in, to waste all three of those set points and, worse, get broken.

When they got to the tiebreaker, it was Muchova who asserted herself, then used some scrambling defense on the last point, flinging the ball back over the net and seeing Osaka send a swinging volley out.

Sinner beat Michelsen for the second time this month, having also won a second-round match in Cincinnati shortly before it was revealed he tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March.

Another Italian, Jasmine Paolini, played just three points before advancing when Karolina Pliskova appeared to injure her left foot. The No. 5-seeded Paolini, who has reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon in her breakout season, advanced past the second round of the U.S. Open for the first time.

“Finally, we made third round!” she said with a laugh during an interview on the court.

Paolini will next play No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva.

Other women’s winners included No. 6 Jessica Pegula, No. 15 Anna Kalinskaya, No. 16 Liudmilla Samsonova and No. 18 Diana Shnaider. Pegula took out fellow American Sofia Kenin.

But No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, withdrew from the tournament before her second-round match, sending French qualifier Jessika Ponchet to the weekend.

“Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from my match today due to my injuries,” Rybakina said in a statement. “I did not want to finish the last Grand Slam of the year this way but I have to listen to my body, and I hope I can close out the remainder of the year strong.”

No. 7 seed Hurbert Hurkacz was eliminated in straight sets by Jordan Thompson, and No. 16 Sebastian Korda was knocked out by Tomas Machac.