2 things that stood out in Alexander Zverev's 4R win over Jannik Sinner at US Open 2023

12th seed Alexander Zverev beat sixth seed Jannik Sinner 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday, September 4. The 26-year-old German emerged victorious after a more than four-hour-long battle with the talented Italian.

Zverev will face the top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. While Alcaraz will start as the favorite to win, Zverev will fancy his chances of causing an upset. He has a positive head-to-head record (3-2) against the World No. 1.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in Zverev's win against Sinner:

#1 Alexander Zverev put a lot of pressure on Jannik Sinner’s backhand

Zverev applied a lot of pressure on Sinner's backhand and made him stretch towards his left side repeatedly. His powerful inside-out forehand won him a lot of points, as the 22-year-old struggled to deal with it with his backhand.

Moreover, the two players often engaged in crosscourt backhand exchanges, with Sinner hitting his backhand into the net at times. Zverev also had a slightly more powerful serve and fired 16 aces in the match against his opponent's 12.

#2 The topsy-turvy battle continued throughout the match

The two players exchanged breaks throughout the match and shared the first four sets. While they were very close in all the key parameters, Zverev did just about enough in the end to secure his victory.

As the match progressed, Sinner started going around his backhand regularly to hit inside-in forehands, putting Zverev under some pressure. However, the 26-year-old was the better player in the final set and sealed his win in the end. He won 70% of the points on his first serve against Sinner’s 69% and also won 56% of the points on his second serve against the World No. 6's 54%.