US Open tennis 2025: Jannik Sinner v Félix Auger-Aliassime, men’s semi-final – live

• Updates from the second of the men’s semi-finals

• Alcaraz too strong as he beats Djokovic | Email Bryan

Here we go then: the second blockbuster men’s semi-final inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, defending champion Jannik Sinner against a resurgent Félix Auger-Aliassime. The world No 1 arrives as the clear favorite and the form line is brutal: Sinner is riding a 26-match winning streak at hard-court majors and has dropped only one set all fortnight – to Denis Shapovalov in the third round – before flattening Lorenzo Musetti in straights on Wednesday. He’s chasing a fifth successive grand slam final appearance after lifting the Australian Open and Wimbledon trophies this year and coming within a point of the Roland Garros crown against Carlos Alcaraz. Win tonight and the 24-year-old also ticks off a couple of milestones: a 300th career win and, at this age, the youngest in the Open era to reach all four major finals in a single season.

If the narrative sounds inevitable, Auger-Aliassime is here to muck it up. The Canadian’s last four years at the slams have been lean – six straight major entries without reaching the third round – but this run has looked and felt different. He’s rediscovered the first-strike clarity that powered him to the 2021 US Open semis, bundling out the No 3 seed Alexander Zverev and the No 15 Andrey Rublev before outlasting the No 8 Alex de Minaur in a four-set scrap that featured two tiebreaks and a lot of grit. He’s 8-0 in breakers since Cincinnati, 6-0 this week, and he’s already vaulted back towards the top 20. Only one Canadian man has ever made a major final (Milos Raonic at Wimbledon 2016); FAA can match that tonight.

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