NEW YORK — Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with a relentless baseline game to win the U.S. Open men’s championship on Sunday, less than three weeks after being exonerated in a doping case.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, won the second Grand Slam trophy of his nascent career - the other was at the Australian Open in January - and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending a major title drought for American men that has lasted 21 years.
Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from the United States. The last before Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, to even contest a final at one of the four biggest tournaments in tennis also was Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
Sinner extended his current winning streak to 11 matches and improved to 55-5 with a tour-high six titles in 2024. That includes a 35-2 mark on hard courts, the surface used at both the Australian Open and U.S. Open, and he is the first man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win his first two Grand Slam trophies in the same season, something such greats as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer never accomplished.
Less than a week before competition began at Flushing Meadows, the world found out that Sinner had tested positive twice for anabolic steroids in March but was cleared because his use was ruled unintentional - the banned substance entered his system via a massage from a team member he later fired.
As expected, Fritz enjoyed something of a home-court advantage on a cool afternoon under a nearly cloudless sky. In a celebrity-filled crowd that included Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, some spectators occasionally engaged in chants of “U-S-A!” between games or rose to their feet whenever he managed to pick up what felt in the moment like a crucial point.
PHOTOS: Jannik Sinner beats Taylor Fritz in the US Open men's final weeks after doping exoneration
Fritz is not the sort to show much in the way of emotion, often greeting those instances with a little shake of his neon-colored racket. When he was broken in the match’s first game, an inauspicious start that included a bad miss of a smash, Fritz grinned sarcastically.
Sinner showed some jitters, too, and when he played a loose game that included a double-fault and other misses, that helped Fritz break back to eventually lead 3-2 after 20 minutes.
That was pretty much the last significant highlight for Fritz or his fans until 3-all in the third set, when he smacked an overhead winner to get to 15-30, punched the air and screamed, “Let’s go!” People in the stands rose, applauding and shouting. After Fritz deposited a volley winner to earn a break point a minute later, he celebrated in the same fashion, and thousands around him went wild. Sinner then double-faulted, putting Fritz in front 4-3.
But when he tried to serve out the set at 5-4, Fritz buckled enough to let Sinner pull even by breaking. Sinner used a drop shot to lure Fritz to the front court, then slid a passing shot that Fritz volleyed into the net. Fritz bounced off his racket off the court. Sinner loped to the towel box, not even smiling.
About 10 minutes later, the victory was Sinner’s thanks to a closing four-game run. When it was over, Sinner raised his arms, threw his head back and closed his eyes.
He generally asserts himself during matches in what perhaps is best described as a rather casual way. His style is less spectacular than solid, less magical than metronomic. Either way, it was masterful, using his long limbs and squeaking, sliding sneakers to get to everything before aiming high-speed shot after shot right near lines - and usually succeeding.
Neither player seemed all that interested in venturing forward Sunday unless forced to, instead content to ply their forehands and backhands from the back of the court.
That’s decidedly Sinner’s territory.
By the end, Sinner, the second Italian to win a singles title at the U.S. Open, joining 2015 women’s champion Flavia Pennetta, had an impressive ledger: just 21 unforced errors, 13 fewer than Fritz, and 23 winners.
Going in, the matchup appeared to be one Fritz would only have a chance of keeping competitive provided he demonstrated his absolute best, particularly when serving. If that’s so, the opening set turned out to be something less than an ideal for him.
He put 36% of his first serves in, delivered only two aces - a total exceeded in the initial game of the second set alone - and wound up with more than twice as many unforced errors (12) as winners (five).
Those sorts of stats would improve from Fritz’s side, but he did not figure out a way to consistently put Sinner in trouble. Few can these days.
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