Iga Swiatek, of Poland, returns a shot to Liudmila Samsonova, of Russia, during a fourth-round match of the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York. (AP )

NEW YORK, Sept 3, (AP): Top-seeded Jannik Sinner reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals by shaking off a slow start and coming through in the clutch at the end of tiebreakers that decided the first two sets, then pulling away to get past No. 14 Tommy Paul 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-1. Two weeks removed from being cleared in a doping case stemming from two positive tests in March, Sinner moved into a showdown against 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev, the only past winner at Flushing Meadows still in the men's field. Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, claimed his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January by defeating Medvedev in five sets in the final after dropping the first two.

They also met in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July, and Medvedev won that one. Sinner finished the initial set with 15 unforced errors on the forehand side alone, but he cleaned that up quickly and closed the match with just six the rest of the way. Everything hinged on the tiebreakers. The first was tied 3-all before Sinner grabbed the last four points. Paul led 5-4 in the second, but Sinner took the last three points.

That meant Sinner has now won 14 of his past 15 tiebreakers, a stretch that dates to a tournament in Halle, Germany, in June. The lone exception was one he lost against Medvedev at Wimbledon. Sinner dropped the first set he played at the U.S. Open, but he won the next 12. Earlier, the No. 5-seeded Medvedev picked up a 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Nuno Borges that briefly was interrupted early in the third set when the electronic line-calling system was shut down because of a fire alarm.

The other quarterfinal on the top half of the men's bracket will be No. 10 Alex de Minaur vs. No. 25 Jack Draper. De Minaur beat Jordan Thompson 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in an all-Australian matchup, while Draper became the first British man in the U.S. Open quarterfinals since Andy Murray in 2016 by defeating Tomas Machac 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider, her seventh trip to that round at a Grand Slam tournament. Now comes the hard part: Pegula is 0-6 in major quarterfinals over her career - and this next one will come against No. 1 Iga Swiatek. The No. 6-seeded Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, is on quite a run at the moment, having won 13 of her past 14 matches, all on hard courts.

That included her second consecutive title in Canada and an appearance in the final at the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka. Swiatek was tied at 4-all with No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova on Monday night before grabbing seven straight games en route to winning 6-4, 6-1. When Swiatek captured the 2022 U.S. Open for one of her five Grand Slam titles, she eliminated Pegula in the quarterfinals

 Indeed, half of Pegula’s six quarterfinal exits at Slams came against a No. 1 player - Swiatek twice and Ash Barty once. Also returning to the quarterfinals was Karolina Muchova, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 5 Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon this season. Muchova next plays No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia, who got past 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to become the first woman from Brazil in the U.S. Open quarterfinals since Maria Bueno in 1968.

Haddad Maia is a 28-year-old left-hander who was given a 10-month suspension after failing a doping test in 2019. She was a semifinalist at the French Open last year but had not been past the second round at Flushing Meadows until now. Muchova enjoyed a breakthrough in 2023, getting to the final in Paris and the semifinals in New York, before needing surgery on her right wrist in October, sidelining her for 10 months.