Italian phenom Jannik Sinner cast aside doping allegations and won his second Grand Slam title of the year, beating American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in the U.S. Open final on Sunday in New York City.
Sinner had control of the match from the beginning, but he raised his hands and dropped his head back in relief after Fritz started to crawl his way back into competition in the final set.
The world No. 1 Sinner sailed through the U.S. Open brackets seemingly unfazed by disclosures that he tested positive for an anabolic steroid earlier this year. The revelation that he was found on March 10 to have taken clostebol brought a cloud on what should have been his 2024 coronation as one of the game’s great, young stars.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency ruled that Sinner ingested the substance accidentally and opted against suspending him.
The 23-year-old won this year’s Australian Open and reached the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon before hoisting another trophy Saturday in Queens.
Sinner’s triumph denied Fritz, a San Diego-area native, his first major title and kept alive a humiliating, two-decade-long streak of American men failing to win the biggest tennis tournament on U.S. soil.
The U.S. has been kept out of the men’s winner circle in Flushing since Andy Roddick defeated Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero on Sept. 7, 2003.
In these past two decades, Switzerland’s Roger Federer won it five times (2004-08) while Spain’s Rafael Nadal (2010, 2013, 2017, 2019) and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (2011, 2015, 2018, 2023) have both won four times in this span.
One-time winners after Roddick have included Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro (2009), Great Britain’s Andy Murray (2012), Croatia’s Marin Čilić (2014), Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka (2016), Austria’s Dominic Thiem (2020), Russia’s Daniil Medvedev (2021) and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz (2022).
Frtiz, 26, had previously come close a Grand Slam title with quarterfinal appearances at Wimbledon and the French Open earlier this year and another round-of-8 visit to the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in 2022.
Sunday’s final culminated a U.S. Open rocked by the shocking second-round upset of Carlos Alcaraz and surprising third-round loss by defending tournament champ Novak Djokovic.