NEW YORK – Jannik Sinner silenced Arthur Ashe Stadium by becoming the champion in the US Open, his first title in New York and his second Grand Slam after the Australian Open 2024.
It was a battle from the baseline, without too many changes of pace or overflowing emotions. At times, there were rallies from the baseline where one had just imposed his power over the other, but it was the forehands and the deep shots that dominated, mostly from Sinner.
‘The last period of my career was not easy,’ said the Italian after defeating Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, and ending the illusions of North American men’s tennis, which has not won a major tournament since Andy Roddick in 2003. Sinner indirectly alluded to the recent positive doping case from which he emerged unscathed, just before receiving the trophy from Andre Agassi.
With two similar tennis styles, it came down to who was going to execute better, and there Sinner was vastly superior.
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If anyone thought Sinner was going to have to play against the crowd as well as against his opponent, they were completely wrong. The 23,000 spectators on centre court at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sunday did not help Fritz.
On Saturday afternoon, the crowd even screamed with faults on Aryna Sabalenka‘s first serve against American Jessica Pegula. In the men’s final there was a more subdued atmosphere.
The reality is that on average the people who attended the final were more excited when the giant screens focused on celebrities like singer Taylor Swift, actor Andrew Garfield, sprinter Noah Lyles or reggaeton singer Bad Bunny.
That temperature was also explained by the dominance of the world number one, and by how huge the final was for Fritz. Disconnected, erratic, nervous, the 26-year-old tennis player was far from showing the level that took him to the last day of the competition, and that expanded the illusions of a nation lacking triumphs for 21 years.
There was a moment of higher voltage, when Fritz broke in the middle of the third set and went to serve for the set, but unforgivable unforced errors and the European’s power put the match back on its main path.
The best tennis player in the world according to the ranking ratified, in a tournament that he faced shrouded in controversy over his positive doping, that he is the most consistent tennis player of the season. The first male Italian to dominate in New York.
