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Jannik Sinner has done what only three other men have achieved in the Open era, and he is the youngest man to do it. He has now won both hardcourt majors in a singles season. The world No.1 won his first US Open and his second career major to go with the Australian Open he won early in the year.
Sinner became the first Italian man and only the second Italian, joining Flavia Pennetta from 2015 in winning the US Open and he bis the first Italian in the open era to win multiple majors.
Jannik defeated how favourite Taylor Fritz in two hours 16 minutes 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in front of 23,000 people, including a galaxy of stars and celebrities such as Jon Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift and her boyfriend footballer Travis Kelce, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, Usher, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick and so many more, in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The atmosphere was deafening and electric.
"Yeah, amazing. Amazing feeling," Sinner said. "Obviously it was a tough match. I felt like I was playing some good tennis from the back of the court. And, yeah, so I'm happy about today's performance.
"I believe that in Melbourne was a kind of a relief, you know, because in my mind, you know, it was like I was working for it, and you never know if you can win one Grand Slam or not, but when you win one, you know that you can do it potentially.
"Here was difficult because also the pretournament circumstances weren't easy. I felt like that I have grown, you know, match by match and that my confidence level went higher and higher at some point.
"It was different because I had more, maybe a bit more pressure this time than in Australia. I'm happy how I handled this one. Yeah, I'm just excited to have this trophy with me."
Sinner dedicated the victory to an aunt of his who is important in his life, but she is very poor health. He said he was not sure how long he had with her so wanted to bring her some joy with this victory.
"My aunt, she's a very important person, because when my parents, they were working every day and all day, so sometimes when I had to go to ski races, I went with her," Jannik said. "She always helped me in summertime when my parents were working and I had some days off or free days. You know, when you are young, you don't go to practice every day. So, I hang around a lot with her, and she's a very important person in my life.
"This also, especially when I had this difficult time, I tried to see it in a different way, you know, sport, things can happen unfortunately, but, you know, the real life is something different. You know, we travel a lot, so it's difficult to spend time with the people who you really love, but if I would have more time, for sure I would spend more time with the people I really care.
"Yeah, it was and is a really difficult moment also now, but, you know, just also have to accept that, yeah, not everything is perfect."
Fritz said it was a really tough match for him. He had a game plan, but it wasn't being effective enough and even his plan B was not quite there. He did have an opportunity in the third set. He broke serve to lead 5-3 and serve for the set a game late but Sinner struck right back and then broke once more while Fritz served to stay in the final.
Fritz said Sinner is an amazing ball striker and even though his own serve picked up in the third set, it was not nearly enough. There was a view that maybe Taylor was feeling the effects of his long and gruelling semifinal against Frances Tiafoe, but he said he felt relatively good. He said that he did not feel as nervous going into the final than he did for that semi.
It is understandable that he was disappointed, and it will take a bit of time to get over a loss in the final, his first, at a major.
"There's obviously a lot of positives, and when I get some time to, like, cool down, you know, then I'll be happy about the fact that I made it to the finals and stuff like that," Fritz said. "But right now I'm pretty just disappointed in how, like, just a lot of things on the court, how I played, how I hit certain shots. It sucks.
"And I'm not saying that it necessarily would have made a difference. I don't know if it would have, but I just would have liked to have played better and given myself a better chance. It's really disappointing right now. I feel like, I don't know, I feel like the fans obviously, American fans, been wanting a men's champion for a long time, and I just, I don't know, I'm pretty upset with how I played. I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I almost let a lot of people down."
For Sinner this victory is his sixth title of the year, and he is the first reigning world No.1 to win the Open since Rafa Nadal in 2017.
The doubles title went to the all-Australian due of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson. They defeated the Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 6-4, 7-6. It was the second major for Purcell who has a Wimbledon title but it is the first for Thompson. They are the first all-Aussie combination to win the US Open men's doubles since Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in 1996.
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