Jannik Sinner, the No. 1-ranked player in men’s tennis, cruised to the US Open title on Sunday, defeating No. 12 seed Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
By getting to the final, Fritz broke a 15-year drought of American men in Grand Slam finals since Andy Roddick’s loss to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2003. However, the Slam-less streak continues, with Roddick’s 2003 US Open victory remaining the last time an American hoisted one of tennis’ four major trophies.
Sinner, who broke through for his first Grand Slam title at the beginning of this year in Australia, left no doubt in this one. Sinner, a 23-year old Italian, lost just two sets in the entire tournament and was never in danger against Fritz in the final.
This was Sinner’s 16th ATP title overall and sixth this year including two Masters 1000-level tournaments in Miami and Cincinnati. He now has a massive lead over No. 2 Alexander Zverev in both the 52-week ranking and the season-long points race that will likely keep him at No. 1 well into next year at minimum.
However, Sinner is still behind Carlos Alcaraz four to two in the head-to-head rivalry for Grand Slam titles that promises to define the rest of this decade in men’s tennis.
Fritz, who had never been beyond a major quarterfinal before this tournament, will leave New York ranked No. 7.
That alone makes this a successful and satisfying tournament for Fritz, even though he was unable to make the final as competitive as he would have liked.
In the first set, Fritz made just 38% of his first serves and paid the price by being broken three times. Fritz served much better in the second set and cruised through a series of easy holds until he stepped to the line at 4-5 when Sinner upped the ante with power and consistency from the baseline to win the set with a commanding break of serve.
Fritz’s only real opening came in the third set when scrapped out a break to take the lead, but he couldn’t hold at 5-4 to force a fourth set.
Sinner entered the US Open surrounded by controversy when the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced that he had been cleared of wrongdoing during an investigation into two positive tests for a banned substance that occurred in March.
Though Sinner had been subject to a provisional suspension that was never made public, he was allowed to keep playing during his appeal, drawing criticism from some current and former players about whether there was a double standard at play in how positive tests are adjudicated.
Sinner, however, was allowed to keep playing because he and his team were able to quickly come up with an explanation for the positive test: His physical trainer had used an over-the-counter spray to treat a finger wound that contains the steroid clostebol and then worked on Sinner’s body with his bare hands.
Sinner was stripped of his points and prize money from a semifinal appearance at Indian Wells where the positive test took place, but the ITIA essentially accepted the evidence from Sinner’s team and determined that he was at no fault or negligence for the traces of clostebol in his system.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jannik Sinner beats Taylor Fritz to win US Open for second major
