The seismic shift in the US Open draw notwithstanding - sans defending champion Novak Djokovic and the 2022 winner Carlos Alcaraz, triumphant at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year- world No.1 Jannik Sinner is keeping his side tidy. Mentally and physically. The 23-year-old shifted gears smoothly to power into the second week, where he is pitted against the world No.14, home-favourite Tommy Paul.
It has been work and more work for Sinner, who tested positive twice in March for the banned steroid Clostebol and was subsequently cleared of fault or negligence by an independent tribunal, leading into the final Grand Slam of the year.
A thornier path is hard to envisage, but Sinner has learned to accommodate in this great race of moving forward. Sinner, trademark calm in place, waded into an incendiary situation with enviable balance. The top seed, who has succeeded in compartmentalizing the situation thus far, scored over Australian Christopher O'Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the third round.
Social media was inflammable and the locker-room swung between cold indifference and calls of favoritism and unfairness. The unkind cut. Sinner was in a corner. It was the spectators at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre, however, that welcomed the Italian where for the fourth consecutive year he has made the fourth round.
Sinner typically refused to be swayed by opinions on social media, which swings between extremes.
"Everyone reacts in a different way," he said. "If I lose today some (hate ) messages are coming in, but I try to be as less as possible on social media because of that. It's like when you live something positive then you see compliments and then when you lose, you see something a bit more negative, but that's how everything works."
"We always try to do our best. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose," he said of an athlete's journey. "As I said, there are always going to be some people who are going to talk in a negative way, but that's also why you have family, you have the close people who know you as a person, I just stick with them because they give you the real values."
Sinner for whom Paul, the 27-year-old from New Jersey, is the third American he's facing here this year, could be his sternest test yet. The top-seed leads the head-to-head 2-1, having won their most recent outing, 12 months ago on hardcourts in Canada.
"This sport is unpredictable," Sinner said of Djokovic's and Alcaraz' exits early in the fortnight. "Whenever you drop a little bit of your level, mentally, tennis-wise or physically, it has a huge impact on the result."
If ever there's a time to make your play count, it is the second week of a Grand Slam.
Meanwhile, India's Rohan Bopanna and Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi, seeded eight, moved into the third round of the mixed-doubles rallying for a 0-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7 win over Czech Katerina Siniakova and Aussie John Peers.
