The last time Jannik Sinner competed in New York, ample question marks remained over his path to greatness. As he continued to work through the physical and mental challenges of tennis at the highest level, he was hustled out of the fourth round of the US Open by Alexander Zverev, his body betraying him.
One year on, life has changed beyond measure. Sinner ends this stay in New York having established himself as the dominant force on hard courts and by far the most consistent player in the world. The No 1 outhit, outworked and ultimately outplayed Taylor Fritz, the 12th seed, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, despite a rousing late resurgence from the home favourite.
Along with becoming the first Italian man to win this championship, Sinner is just the fourth man to win the Australian and US Open titles in the same year since both tournaments were held on hard courts from 1988. He continues to piece together one of the great breakthrough seasons of the 21st century outside of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Nine months into the season, defeats are still few and far between. Sinner is now 55-5 (92%) in 2024 and an imperious 35-2 (95%) on hard courts, having won six of his 16 career titles this year.
“It means so much because the last period of my career was really not easy,” said Sinner. “There is my team who supports me each day, the people who are close to me. I love tennis, I practise a lot for this kind of stages. I also realise that there is a life. I would like to dedicate this title to my aunt because she is really not feeling well health-wise. I don’t know how much [longer] I still have her in my life. It’s so nice that I can share positive moments still with her.”
Many players born in the 1990s thought there would be more opportunities to win major titles once the big three faded from view, yet in the first year since 2002 that none of the big three have won a grand slam title, Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have split the slams between them, shutting out all challengers. While players born in the 1990s have won just two major titles between them, Sinner and Alcaraz, aged 23 and 21 respectively, now have a total of six major titles.
One week before the start of the US Open, Sinner announced that he had twice tested positive for the banned substance clostebol in April before an independent tribunal ruled that he bore no fault or negligence for the presence of the substance in his body. The lead-up to the tournament was rife with both public and private discussion from players, with some alleging that the tennis anti-doping authorities treat the No 1 differently to rank-and-file players. Sinner had been able to successfully appeal his initial provisional suspension and continue playing without disclosing the positive tests.
Having competed each week despite the uncertainty surrounding his impending independent tribunal, Sinner noted that he felt relief after receiving a favourable result and the news being made public. He has not always played at his highest level over the past two weeks, but he has been lethal under pressure.
Fritz’s breakthrough run remains a massive achievement, underlining his drive, work ethic and particularly his toughness as he made sure he took advantage of a wide-open bottom half of the draw. But as he fell short of becoming the first American male grand slam champion since 2003, his issue here was fairly simple. He was facing a better athlete, returner and overall better tennis player who is full of confidence during the best season of his life so far.
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Even as Fritz shook off his early nerves and attempted to force himself to take the first strike, the contrast in their athleticism was particularly stark. Sinner’s ability to slide into balls perfectly balanced, counter with depth and then recover is second only to Djokovic and he defended tremendously throughout. When Fritz was dragged out wide, he rarely recovered.
In addition to imposing sustained pressure on Fritz with his combined depth, weight and pace of shot, Sinner chose his moments to inject significant pace into rallies at will. After being well beaten in the opening set, Fritz found greater rhythm on his serve in set two. At 5-4 on Fritz’s serve, though, Sinner locked down his game and snatched the break.
It seemed like Sinner would quickly close out the contest as he generated break point at 3-2 in the third set, but Fritz responded with an admirable last stand. With a devastating stretch of attacking tennis late in the third set, he recovered to establish a 5-3 lead and the crowd, largely silenced by Sinner’s sustained excellence, finally came alive. Sinner often says that he loves the pressure moments and throughout this tournament he has shown why. He calmly reeled Fritz back in, winning four games in a row for his second grand slam, a title count that will only continue to grow.