Jannik Sinner, Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Italian top seed Jannik Sinner has won the US Open men's tennis title beating American Taylor Fritz in straight sets in New York.
Sinner held aloft his arms in celebration after breaking Fritz to clinch the title 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, and cheers rang around Arthur Ashe Stadium, even though home fans had hoped to see Fritz end a 21-year US men's Grand Slam drought.
Sinner was under a cloud of controversy at the start of the tournament after revelations that he tested positive twice for an anabolic agent in March but avoided a ban when an independent tribunal accepted his claim that the positive tests were the result of an unintentional contamination.
The top seed blocked out the furore in New York and with the win claimed his second Grand Slam title after winning the Australian Open earlier this year.
Jannik Sinner career to date
- Began his professional career playing on the ITF Circuit in 2018.
- Won his first ATP Challenger title in February 2019, becoming the youngest Italian to do so. Qualified for the main draw of the 2019 U.S. Open, but suffered a defeat on his Grand Slam debut to former champion Stan Wawrinka.
- Won the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals by upsetting Alex de Minaur in straight sets. Ended the year ranked 78th in the world, winning the ATP Newcomer of the Year award.
- Won his first Grand Slam main-draw match at the Australian Open 2020. He reached the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2020 by defeating David Goffin and Alexander Zverev before losing to Rafa Nadal.
- Won the 2020 Sofia Open, his first ATP title, and became the youngest Italian to win a tour-level title in the Open Era. Ended the year ranked 37th in the world.
- In 2021, he won the Great Ocean Road Open, Citi Open, Sofia Open and European Open and played in the ATP Finals as the first alternate. Ended the year ranked number 10 in the world.
- In 2022, he reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and US Open. He lost the latter to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in a match that lasted five hours and 15 minutes, the second-longest in the tournament's history.
- Reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon 2023 and won his first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open. He also reached a career-high ranking of world number four, becoming just the second Italian to reach the top five.
- Beat Novak Djokovic in the round-robin stage of the ATP Finals before losing to the Serbian in the final. Helped Italy to win the Davis Cup after a gap of 47 years in November 2023.
- Beat third seed Daniil Medvedev to win his first Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open.
- Tested positive for the steroid clostebol in two samples taken in March 2024 but received no suspension after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) found the positive tests were due to contamination from his physiotherapist.
- Became the world's number one ranked player after reaching the French Open semi-finals in June 2024.
- Beat 12th seed Taylor Fritz to win his first US Open in September 2024.
- Reuters