Jannik Sinner’s US Open title run won’t clear the air around him entirely

For nearly two hours on Sunday afternoon, everything had gone so smoothly and serendipitously for Jannik Sinner.

He had broken his opponent, Taylor Fritz, in the first game. That had given him an early lead, and eased any jitters he may have felt about playing his first US Open final, against an American, in front of thousands of people who would be rooting hard, and loudly, for him to lose.

In the second set, Fritz found his footing on his serve and began to hold easily. But Sinner managed to break him at the most convenient moment, with the American serving at 4-5. Suddenly, a contest that had featured plenty of high-velocity rallies, and that had looked as if could turn competitive, had turned into a rout instead. Despite making just 51 percent of his first serves, Sinner hadn’t been broken. He was defending Fritz’s best blasts from the baseline, and sending back harder, heavier, more precise responses. The Italian was keeping the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, which was itching to explode, at a low, frustrated murmur.

Sinner’s enchanted ride continued into the fifth game of the third set, when he reached double break point on Fritz’s serve at 2-3. He must have caught a glimpse of the finish line in that moment, and tightened up a bit at the sight, because he became tentative for the first time. He shanked a return, pulled a forehand wide, and watched as Fritz belted a 100-m.p.h. forehand to hold. The fans finally had a chance to get noisy, and the commotion only grew in the next game, when Fritz broke Sinner’s serve with a perfect lob and another triple-digit forehand.

Stress had come to Sinner’s life, and a fourth set—exactly what he didn’t want—seemed like it was soon to follow. How did the 23-year-old react? Exactly the way he has reacted for the last 11 months, when his rise to No. 1 began. He went to his strengths, in particular his forehand, and it was there for him.

In the third set, Sinner had moved farther back to return Fritz’s serve. At first, it didn’t look like the right play, but it worked at the most important moment, with Fritz serving for it at 5-4. From that deep position, Sinner worked his way forward as the points progressed, and pummeled Fritz with a series of ever-more-forceful forehands. Sinner broke, held, and broke again for the title.

Faced with a moment of adversity, he had handled it with a mix of tactical intelligence and shot-making bravado—which is a pretty fair description of what Sinner has brought to the court all season.

“You work so hard for these kinds of trophies. I’m so happy I can take this one with me, because I lost some tough ones here,” said Sinner, who was eliminated by Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev in late-night five-setters at the last two years at the Open.

“I’m trying to stay very, very aggressive,” he said of his mindset against Fritz. “From the beginning I’m trying to let him know that I would like to make the game. I was playing well from the back of the court.”

When Fritz found the range on his serve in the second set, Sinner adjusted.

“He was serving much smarter, so I changed a couple of things, my return position,” Sinner said. “I’m trying to make him think a little bit.”

While Sinner was aggressive, his defense, an improved but still underrated aspect of his game, was equally important. Fritz hit more winners (29 to 23), but Sinner committed fewer errors (21 to 34).

As for Fritz, he said he was ready, not too nervous, and not overly tired. He just couldn’t find a groove from the baseline.

“I definitely didn’t hit the ball as well as I expected to,” Fritz said. “That’s something that’s big if I wanted to go back and forth and ball-strike with him, because he’s such an amazing ball striker.”

Sinner’s second Grand Slam title of 2024 makes the transfer of power from the Big 3 to the New 2—Sinner and Alcaraz—complete.

When that happens, Fritz said he would normally start to play safer, but he didn’t feel like that was an option against Sinner’s heavy artillery.

“[If] I tried to kind of bring it down, not be as aggressive, he’s just gonna bully me a little bit too much,” Fritz said.

Sinner began this US Open under very different circumstances than the way he’s ended it. He came to New York under a cloud of suspicion and resentment after revealing that he had failed two doping tests and not suffered any consequences for it.

Has that cloud cleared now? Not entirely, as Sinner himself admits.

“It’s still a little bit in my mind,” he said of what he calls the “pre-tournament circumstances.”

“The general reaction of the players was quite positive, even when things came out,” he said. “Then there have been, of course, some different voices, but this is in everything. This is not only in tennis…You can’t really do anything about that. That’s why you have the people close to you.”

“But during this tournament, slowly I restarted to feel a little bit more how I am as a person.”

Part of the reason Sinner was exonerated, his judges said, is that he comes across as a good person who cares about following anti-doping rules. That doesn’t mean he’s innocent, and it doesn’t mean we should forget or dismiss the failed tests. But through everything at the Open, and everything he’s accomplished this season, he has acted like a worthy champion and future face of the game. In New York, he also showed his steely side. Nothing, not even a front-page doping scandal, distracted him from his goal.

Sinner’s second Grand Slam title of 2024 makes the transfer of power from the Big 3 to the New 2—Sinner and Alcaraz—complete. The 23-year-old Italian won the two hard-court majors, the Australian Open and the US Open. The 21-year-old Spaniard won the two on softer courts, Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Separately, they’re evolving the sport along different tracks. Sinner’s ability to combine blazing power with accuracy and consistency sets a new standard for power-baseline tennis. Alcaraz’s combination of dramatic shot-making and electrifying speed does the same for tennis athleticism. Combined, they’ve made the men’s game feel young again this year.