NEW YORK — World number one Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with impeccable baseline play to win the U.S. Open on Sunday, less than three weeks after being cleared in a doping case.
The 23-year-old Italian won the second Grand Slam trophy of his young career after triumphing at the Australian Open earlier this year.
“This title means a lot to me, because the last period of my career has really not been easy,” he confessed.
Sinner thus prevented Fritz from becoming the first American to win a Grand Slam tournament since Andy Roddick in 2003, at Flushing Meadows.
The last American to qualify for a Grand Slam final, before Fritz, was also Roddick, in 2009, at Wimbledon. He lost to Roger Federer.
“Being an American at the U.S. Open is just incredible. I felt love all week. Thank you so much,” Fritz said at the trophy ceremony.
“I know we’ve been waiting for a champion for a long time, so I’m sorry I couldn’t do it this time. But I’ll keep working and hopefully I’ll have it next year.”
The tournament was nevertheless a success in several respects for American tennis with two women and two men in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2003.
American Jessica Pegula also reached the final, but lost to Aryna Sabalenka.
Sinner, who has now won his last 11 games, is 55-5 in 2024 and 35-2 on hard courts.
“I’ve had a lot of big wins this season,” said Sinner, who took advantage of early exits by Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. “But the work never stops.”
By winning six titles this year, including two majors, Sinner also became the first man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win his first two Grand Slams in the same season. Not even Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer had done that.
Less than a week before the competition began at Flushing Meadows, we learned that Sinner had tested positive twice for anabolic steroids in March, but was cleared because his use was deemed unintentional – the banned substance had entered his system through a massage from a team member he later fired.
“We took it one day at a time … believing in ourselves, which is the most important thing,” said Sinner, who mentioned that one of his aunts is in poor health. “I understand, especially in this tournament, how important the mental aspect is.”
