After receiving encouragement from Serena Williams on Saturday, top seed Iga Swiatek picked up steam in her pursuit of a sixth Grand Slam victory, while Jannik Sinner avoided the fate of his closest competitors by making it to the U.S. Open’s fourth round.

All eyes were on Sinner as defending champion Novak Djokovic was eliminated from the match by a shocking loss to Alexei Popyrin in the third round on Friday, while another championship candidate, Carlos Alcaraz, was destroyed by Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round the day before.

After a doping scandal in the run-up to the tournament, the Italian, who has handled the tremendous attention, defeated Christopher O’Connell 6-1 6-4 6-2 to solidify his position as the clear favorite in the year’s last major.

“This sport is erratic, don’t you think? Regarding Djokovic and Alcaraz’s departures, Sinner stated, “Whenever you drop a little bit of your level, you know, if it’s mental, if it’s tennis-wise or physical, at the end it has a huge impact on the result.”

“They fell to both of their opponents, who both had outstanding tennis plays. And it takes place.

“I just watch what I have to do, which I believe I’ve done, on my end, and then we’ll see what I can do.”

Tommy Paul, who is eager to break the 21-year American wait for a domestic major winner since Andy Roddick won in New York, is the next player up for the Australian Open champion.

When they play, Paul, the 14th seed, hopes to counter Sinner’s “bang-bang tennis” after overcoming Canadian Gabriel Diallo 6-7(5) 6-3 6-1 7-6(3) in the first set.

Paul remarked, “He’s probably the best ball striker on tour; I’m not.” “I don’t want to just bang on the baseline with him, toe to toe. I want to attempt to change things up.

In the women’s draw, Paul’s countrywoman and sixth seed Jessica Pegula advanced after defeating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3 6-3, while Ashlyn Krueger lost 6-1 6-1 to Liudmila Samsonova.

Winner of the French Open, Swiatek later defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-2 with an almost faultless performance following a conversation with 23-time major winner Williams, who made a comeback to the U.S. Open as a spectator after taking a break from tennis in 2022.

It was a pleasure to meet her. She exudes a lot of optimism. A star-struck Swiatek remarked, “It’s great that she came onsite and she was chatting with the players.”

It was good that she reached out to me because if it had been the other way around, I doubt I would have had the guts to do it. However, she is genuinely kind and upbeat.

She told me she was rooting for me, so I’m glad she’s watching tennis and my match.