(Reuters) -Top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner, playing on his 24th birthday, ended French qualifier Terence Atmane's dream run at the Cincinnati Open with a 7-6(4) 6-2 win on Saturday to reach the final of the U.S. Open tune-up event.
Sinner won a remarkable 91% of his first-serve points, did not face a single break point during the 86-minute match and converted two of five break points in his first career meeting with world number 136 Atmane.
"Very, very tough challenge," Sinner said on
court after being serenaded with "Happy Birthday" by the crowd. "Every time when you play against someone completely new it's very difficult.
"I knew that I had to be very, very careful and my mindset today was in a good spot. I feel like I handled situations on the court very well."
The Italian world number one had his hands full throughout a tightly contested first set which featured an imperious serving display from both men and not a single break point opportunity for either player.
Sinner, who lost just three points on serve in the opening set, held to love for a third consecutive game to force the tiebreak where Atmane gifted his opponent the opening point with a double fault and from there the Italian never looked back.
The reigning U.S. Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon champion opened the second set with a nine-minute hold of serve, then held to love before finally breaking Atmane for a 3-1 lead that gave him the cushion he needed.
Sinner followed that with another hold to love to go 4-1 up and all but end any hope for Atmane, who beat top-10 players Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune en route to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final.
With Atmane serving at 2-5 and looking to stay in the match, Sinner quickly jumped ahead 0-40 before sealing the win on his third match point when the Frenchman sent a forehand into the net.
Sinner will face either second seed Carlos Alcaraz or Alexander Zverev in Monday's final.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Clare Fallon)
