NEW YORK — Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with a relentless baseline game to win the US Open men’s singles championship on Sunday, less than three weeks after being exonerated in a doping case.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, won the second Grand Slam trophy of his nascent career — the other was at the Australian Open in January — and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending a major title drought for American men that has lasted 21 years.
Sinner is the fourth different man to win both the Australian Open and US Open in the same year since 1988, when the Australian major transitioned from grass to hard court.
With Aryna Sabalenka having swept both the Australian Open and US Open, too, it’s the first time that the same man and the same woman won both hard-court majors in the same year since 1988 (Mats Wilander and Steffi Graf did so that year).
Sinner dedicated his victory to his aunt, who he said is dealing with health issues.
“I love tennis, I practice a lot for this kind of stage,” he said during the trophy presentation. “I also realize off the court there is a life,” noting that it means a lot for him to be able to share these positive moments with his family.
Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from the United States. The last before Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, to even contest a final at one of the four biggest tournaments in tennis also was Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
“Being an American at the US Open, it’s just incredible feeling love all week Thank you so much,” Fritz told the New York crowd. “I know we’ve been waiting for a champion for a long time, so I’m sorry I couldn’t get it done. I’m gonna keep working and hopefully I’ll get it next time.”
Sinner extended his current winning streak to 11 matches and improved to 55-5 with a tour-high six titles in 2024. That includes a 35-2 mark on hard courts, the surface used at both the Australian Open and US Open, and he is the first man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win his first two Grand Slam trophies in the same season, something such greats as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer never accomplished.
Less than a week before competition began at Flushing Meadows, the world found out that Sinner had tested positive twice for anabolic steroids in March but was cleared because his use was ruled unintentional — the banned substance entered his system via a massage from a team member he later fired.
Sinner broke Fritz’s serve three times in the 41-minute opening set, winning 15 of the set’s last 19 points, then broke again to close out the second set. They traded breaks in the third set before Sinner got another late to claim the title. Fritz had been broken only nine times in his first six matches at Flushing Meadows.
The match was played under a sunny sky at Arthur Ashe Stadium on a 70-degree day.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.