Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with relentless baseline play to win the US Open men’s title on Sunday, less than three weeks after becoming. exempted in doping cases.
Sin ranked No. 1, the 23-year-old Italian won the second Grand Slam title of his career – the other came at the Australian Open in January – and held off No. 12 Fritz to end his major title drought. for Americans who have been there for 21 years.
Andy Roddick’s victory at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from the United States. The last person before Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, even participated in the final of one of the four biggest tennis tournaments was Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
Dosa extends his current winning streak to 11 matches and improves to 55-5 with six tour titles in 2024. This includes a 35-2 mark on hard courts, the surface used at the Australian Open and US Open, and he is the first man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 won the first two Grand Slam trophies in the same season, something great like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer never accomplished.
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Less than a week before the start of the competition in Flushing Meadows, the world discovered that Dosa had tested positive for the second time for anabolic steroids in March but was expelled because of his accidental use – a prohibited substance that entered the system through a massage from a member of his team. later fired.
As expected, Fritz enjoyed the home advantage on a chilly evening under a cloudless sky. In the crowd of celebrities that included Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, some spectators occasionally joined chants of “USA!” between games or raised for each one who managed to pick up what he felt at the moment as an important point.
Fritz was not the type to show emotion, often greeting the incident by waving a neon-colored racket. When he broke in the first game of the match, an inauspicious start that included a bad miss Smash, Fritz grinned sarcastically.
Dosa showed some jitters, too, and when he played a loose game that included a double fault and another miss, that helped Fritz break back to finally lead 3-2 after 20 minutes.
It was the last major highlight for Fritz or the fans until it was 3-all in the third set, when he hit an overhead winner to make it 15-30, screaming and yelling, “Let’s go!” The people in the stands rose, clapped and shouted. After Fritz deposited the championship volley to get a break point a minute later, celebrated in the same fashion, and thousands of people around went wild. Dosa then double faulted, putting Fritz in front 4-3.
But when trying to serve out the set at 5-4, Fritz buckled enough to let Dosa pull even by breaking. Dosa used a drop shot to lure Fritz to the front court, then put a shot that Fritz made into the net. Fritz bounced the racket off the court. Dosa loped into the towel box, not even smiling.
About 10 minutes later, the victory was thanks to Sinner to close the four game. When he finished, Dosa raised his hands, threw his head back and closed his eyes.
He generally asserts himself during matches in what can best be described as a relaxed manner. His style is less spectacular than dense, less magical than metronomic. Either way, it’s masterful, using his long limbs and squeaking, sliding his sneakers to get to everything before aiming at high speed shot after shot right near the line – and usually successful.
None of the players were interested in going forward on Sunday, unless forced to, but were able to do their forehands and backhands from the back of the court.
That is definitely the area of ​​Sin.
In the end, Sinner, the second Italian to win a US Open singles title, joining 2015 women’s champion Flavia Pennetta, has a big ledger: just 21 unforced errors, 13 fewer than Fritz, and 23 winners.
Going in, the match was one where Fritz would only have a chance to stay competitive if he showed his best, especially when serving. If so, the opening set turned out to be less than ideal for him.
He put 36% of the first serves, sent only two aces – the total exceeded in the initial game of the second set alone – and wound up with more than twice as many unforced errors (12) as the winner (five).
Such statistics would increase from Fritz’s side, but he did not know how to constantly suffer sinners. Few can today.
