Jannik Sinner vs Stan Wawrinka Prediction
Sixth seed Jannik Sinner will face former champion Stan Wawrinka in the third round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Saturday, September 2, 2023.
Jannik Sinner cantered to another straight sets win to reach the third-round stage at the 2023 US Open. Sinner was expected to face his first acid test at the tournament against fellow big-hitting compatriot Lorenzo Sonego. But it was the 22-year-old who took care of business comfortably winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on a sunny Louis Armstrong Stadium. Sinner posted some remarkable numbers in the match. He won 89% of first-serve points behind his first serve, although that number dipped marginally, he still recorded a healthy 80% of points won behind his second delivery. Sinner hammered 27 winners, almost 10 more than Sonego and kept his unforced error count at a low of 15.
Stan Wawrinka, for his part, backed up his opening-round win over Yoshihito Nishioka to beat 30th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina. After an evenly matched opening two sets in which they split two tiebreaks, the clock ticked past two hours. Surprisingly, it was the 38-year-old Wawrinka who found a higher gear and pushed beyond his physical limits to win the next two sets and the match. He has now clocked at least six hours to reach this stage. The 2016 champion will play in third round stage of the US Open for the first time since 2019 when he made the quarterfinals in a run that saw him defeat Novak Djokovic via a retirement win. Can he upset one of the much-fancied favorites on Saturday?
At 38, Wawrinka is the oldest player to play in the third round of the US Open since Jimmy Connors back in 1991 when he was 39. But he has seemingly impossible task in his hands as he is set to take one of the tournament favorites Jannik Sinner. The word impossible doesn't feature in Wawrinla's dictionary though as he's always done his best work when the odds are stacked against him. But after such a punishing four setter against Etecheverry, it is Sinner's younger and fresher legs that will overun the Swiss veteran.
