Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with relentless baseline play to win the US Open men’s championship on Sunday, less than three weeks after being exonerated in doping case.
Sinner, the 23-year-old world No. 1 from Italy, won the second Grand Slam trophy of his fledgling career – the other at the Australian Open in January – and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending a 21-year major title drought for American men.
Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Grand Slam title won by an American. The last man before Fritz, a 26-year-old Californian, to reach a final at one of tennis’s four major tournaments was also Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
Sinner extended his current winning streak to 11 matches and improved his record 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 the US 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 the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer have never accomplished.
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Less than a week before the competition began at Flushing Meadows, the world discovered 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 via a massage from a team member he later fired.
As expected, Fritz enjoyed home-field advantage on a cool afternoon under mostly cloudless skies. In a crowd packed with celebrities, including Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, some spectators occasionally chanted “USA!” between plays or stood up whenever he scored what seemed like a crucial point at the time.
Fritz isn’t one to show much emotion, often greeting these moments with a gentle shake of his neon racket. When he got broken in the first game of the match, an inauspicious start that included a missed smash, Fritz smiled sarcastically.
Sinner also showed some signs of nervousness, and when he played a loose game that included a double fault and other misses, it helped Fritz come back to eventually lead 3-2 after 20 minutes.
That was pretty much the last highlight for Fritz and his fans until he hit an overhead winner to get back to 15-30 in the third set, then pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “Here we go!” The crowd in the stands stood, cheered and screamed. After Fritz dropped a volley winner to set up a break point a minute later, he celebrated in kind, and thousands of people around him went wild. Sinner then double-faulted, giving Fritz a 4-3 lead.
But when he tried to serve for the set at 5-4, Fritz gave up enough to let Sinner break back to even. Sinner used a drop shot to lure Fritz to the front of the court, then slid a passing shot that Fritz sent into the net. Fritz bounced off his racket to leave the court. Sinner bounded to the towel box, not even smiling.
Ten minutes later, Sinner won the match with a four-play run. When the match was over, Sinner raised his arms, threw his head back and closed his eyes.
He usually asserts himself during games in a rather relaxed manner. His style is less spectacular than solid, less magical than metronomic. Regardless, he has been masterful, using his long limbs and squeaky, slippery sneakers to reach everything before aiming shot after shot at high speed just off the lines – and usually successfully.
Neither player seemed particularly interested in venturing further on Sunday unless forced to, instead sticking to playing their forehands and backhands from the baseline.
This is definitely Sinner territory.
In the end, Sinner, the second Italian to win a US Open singles title, joining 2015 women’s champion Flavia Pennetta, had an impressive record: just 21 unforced errors, 13 fewer than Fritz, and 23 winners.
At first, the match seemed like a duel that Fritz could only keep at a competitive level if he showed his best, especially on serve. If that was the case, the first set turned out to be far from ideal for him.
He hit 36% of his first serves, delivered only two aces – a total exceeded in the opening game of the second set alone – and finished with more than twice as many unforced errors (12) as winners (five).
Those sorts of stats could have improved on Fritz’s side, but he didn’t find a way to consistently put Sinner in trouble. Few can do that these days.
