Jannik Sinner bested native player Bu Yunchaokete in the semi-final of the 2024 China Open, which means that he will face Carlos Alcaraz in the final on Wednesday.
After Alcaraz bested Daniil Medvedev in the first semi-final, Sinner only needed to win his semi-final so that the fans at the China Open would get the final they all wanted to see.
When the draw came out, it was clear that the ideal final would be the one between Sinner and Alcaraz: the number one seed against the number two seed. After both reached the final, fans at the ATP 500 event in Beijing can start buying the tickets, and Sinner didn't have too many issues getting it done.
He faced a native player who just recently broke into the Top 100. Most of the wins Yunchaokete got this year were on the ATP Challenger Tour, and he's certainly not used to playing players as good as Sinner.
Still, he did a fine job with it, even though Sinner was clearly the better player. It was a match that was battled from the baseline as both stuck to it and exchanged blows. There was plenty of excitement, but neither was playing superbly clean.
Both had more errors than the winners. Sinner even had to save break points in the opening set, but he saved all of them. Yunchaokete had to save more break points as he faced six, but he didn't save one of those, which was enough for Sinner to win the opening set 6-3.
The Italian had 12 winners and 19 unforced errors in the opening set of the match. Yunchaokete had only 6 winners and 16 unforced errors, which showed where the difference was.
The second set was similar because the Chinese player once more stood firm. He didn't allow a break in his first three service games, even though he did have to save a break point.
It wasn't the most incredible tennis from Sinner, but he was likely pacing himself and doing only as much as he needed to. However, that could have backfired as his opponent was playing some incredible tennis, hitting the ball precisely and powerfully.
On his own serve in the second set, Sinner barely faced any problems, which was in line with how he had generally played at the event so far. At 3-3, Sinner made it to 30-15 on his opponent's serve as he was pushing to finish off the match, sensing that his opponent might have started to struggle.
The Chinese player wasn't used to playing players as good as the Italian, but he made a respectable effort. Sinner had a break point at 3-3, but the Chinese player once again saved it.
Bu saved three of them in that game to keep himself in the match. Yunchaokete was holding up extremely well in the second set, likely overperforming, and fans were pushing him with their loud cheers.
Sinner just lacked a bit of sharpness in the big moments, but still, he was able to win the match in the tie-break, triumphing 6-3, 7-6(3) to set up the final with Alcaraz.
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