Jannik Sinner fulfilled the forecast and defeated Californian Taylor Fritz in the US Open final held this Sunday at Athur Ashe Stadium in Queens.
The world’s number 1 tennis player He beat his rival in three sets, 6-3, 6-4 and 7-5in two hours and 15 minutes. In this way It ended the hopes of all those who wanted to see a local tennis player crowned for the first time in 21 yearssince that 2003 in which Andy Roddick lifted the men’s title at Flushing Meadows.
Sinner’s victory also served as a personal vindication after the controversy of recent weeks over his positive doping test in Indian Wells, which was not sanctioned after the authorities concluded that it had been an error on the part of his physiotherapist.
Sinner has six titles so far this year (all of them on hard courts) and has now won twelve matches in a row, having also won the Cincinnati Masters 1000.
In addition, he became the fourth tennis player in history to win two hard-court Grand Slams in the same year. The others are racket giants like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Mats Wilander.
Until Sunday, Flavia Pennetta in 2015 was Italy’s only victory at the New York ‘major’.
The 23-year-old Italian is aiming to lead the generational change in men’s tennis after the ‘big three’ with the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (21 years old), so much so that they have shared the four ‘majors’ this year between them (the Spaniard won Roland Garros and Wimbledon).
After the early and surprising eliminations of Djokovic, world number two, and Alcaraz, number three, Sinner remained the favorite in the US Open and lived up to expectations.: only lost two sets in the entire tournament and along the way he knocked out some fearsome rivals such as the Russian Daniil Medvedev, fifth in the ATP rankings.
Arthur Ashe Stadium was New York’s most sought-after playground on Sunday, and numerous stars of entertainment and sports were seen in the stands, including Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny, Patrick Mahomes, Matthew McConaughey, Usher, Jayson Tatum or Jon Bon Jovi.
Sinner conquered his nerves; Fritz couldn’t shake them off
It must not be easy to play your first Grand Slam final, to do it in the largest tennis court in the worldin your own country and also with the pressure of more than two decades without an American champion.
Perhaps that burden weighed on him at the start. Fritzthat He gave up his first serve with a childish error on a smash. Sinner was not immune to nerves either and gave up another break with a huge mistake on another smash. (2-2).
The Italian began to warm up, but the Californian continued to struggle with his serve and kept making unforced errors that cost him another break (4-3).
For his part, Sinner, without having to risk too much, looked increasingly comfortable in the long rallies and sealed the first set against a break in just 41 minutes.
Fritz was not at all comfortable, as in the first set he only made 38% of his first serves (Sinner’s 60%) and got stuck with 12 unforced errors (34 at the end of the match) compared to only 8 for his rival (21 in total).
But in the semi-finals against his compatriot Frances Tiafoe (n.20) he also started behind and ended up coming back in five sets.
Her first and most urgent task was to repair her serve and she achieved this with a much more reliable and dangerous serve in the second set. She went from suffering three breaks in the first set to winning her serves very quickly in a match that was also played at top speed.
On the contraryFritz continued to have problems getting to the net and mobility on the court, something that Sinner punished with finesse and several dropped ones.
The Italian, like a veteran hunter on the prowl, waited for his moment while limiting his unforced errors to the maximum (just one in the entire second set). Thus, he smelled blood with two set points on return at 5-4 and caught Fritz with a splendid backhand down the line.
Only 76 minutes had passed and Sinner, despite a surprising miscue on his first serve, was already close to the trophy. Meanwhile, the fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium, mostly on Fritz’s side (there were shouts of “USA”), could only imagine a utopian comeback.
The penultimate thread of hope came in the first game of the third set when Fritz had three break chances. But Sinner, a titan on hard courts this year, neutralized all three.
With nothing to lose, Fritz, a rather cold tennis player, began to let go of his arm and shout with rage while the crowd was getting excited. The result? A break with a double fault by Sinner to go 3-4 and appeal to the epic.
It was an empty illusion. Serving at 4-5 to settle the set, Fritz conceded another break with a volley into the net and from then on everything went downhill.
Instead, Sinner, tremendously calm and firm, did not take much longer to secure his first US Open victory from the return and with incontestable superiority. on a day that was magical for Italy and depressing once again for the home team.
*With information from EFE.
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