Taylor Fritz, 26, from Rancho Santa Fe had high hopes. The tennis pro from California, ranked 12th in the world, could have become the first American Grand Slam winner in men’s singles since 2003 in New York on Sunday afternoon. Back then, Andy Roddick won the US Open. But in a shockingly one-sided final, Fritz, who had defeated the German Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals, lost 3:6, 4:6, 5:7 to the world number one Jannik Sinner.
Now the 23-year-old South Tyrolean from the tranquil town of Innichen in the Puster Valley is the man with the best performance: he was the first Italian to win in New York. He thus followed in the footsteps of fellow countrywoman Flavia Penetta, who was the first and only Italian to win the US Open title in 2015. For Sinner, it is the second Grand Slam triumph of his career. Last January, he won the Australian Open.
The final was, of course, a show at its finest, and no other match during the US Open had as many prominent spectators as the last match. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, soul singer Usher and actor Matthew McConaughey appeared in boxes, and shortly before the start the royal couple of VIPs, singer Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, football pro Travis Kelce, arrived. Social media went crazy. Otherwise, there were probably between 50 and 100 people from the American television and entertainment business in attendance, nicely distributed across all the boxes arranged in a circle in the middle tier around the tennis court.
Fritz immediately conceded the break, he lost his first service game, but quickly equalized at 2:2. Most of the 24,000 spectators in the stadium immediately cheered. The support for Fritz had an effect, Sinner began to show nerves. But only briefly. He remained the more offensive player and confidently secured the first set. In the second set, Fritz became more active.
At first, not much happened. Mrs. Swift went out once. She also seems to be a human being with certain needs. Jon Bon Jovi smiled on the video wall. Shouts of “USA, USA” echoed down from above. The atmosphere could have been better, though. Perhaps there are sometimes too many people in the arena at matches like this who have nothing to do with tennis.
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Sinner struck again at 5:4. He can actually step up his game a bit if he has to. He put Fritz under pressure and managed to break to 6:4. If Fritz wanted to win, he now had to win three sets in a row. He had already managed this difficult task three times in his career. In the third set, Fritz was close to defeat, he fended off two break points at 2:3 and suddenly took Sinner’s serve.
Sinner let Fritz back into the match, but equalized again, 5:5. After 2 hours and 16 minutes, the first match point came. Fritz hit the ball into the net. Shortly afterwards, Sinner received the trophy from ex-pro Andre Agassi. Fritz can console himself with 1.8 million dollars in prize money, Sinner receives 3.6 million dollars.
Sinner’s victory has a bad aftertaste. He was under a lot of pressure at the start of the US Open. He had to explain himself because of two positive doping tests in March, and his offense only became public in the week before the tournament.. When the case was announced, it was announced at the same time that he had just been acquitted; according to the official verdict, his fired physiotherapist had caused him to test positive.