Jannik Sinner clinched the US Open title with a gripping straight-sets victory over Taylor Fritz on Sunday. (Full Coverage | More Tennis News)
The momentum ebbed and flowed in a tight contest, with Sinner claiming his maiden title at Flushing Meadows 6-3 6-4 7-5 in two hours and 17 minutes.
Sinner quietened the home crowd early, breaking Fritz's serve in the opening game, but it only motivated the American, who edged in front shortly after by winning three on the trot.
The reigning Australian Open champion responded in kind though, going one better with a four-game winning streak to get the first set in the bag.
The second set was a cagey affair, with the players matching each other stride for stride, neither willing to blink first.
With the chance to level the score at 5-5, Fritz started to wobble, making a couple of unforced errors in the final game as he lost his serve, giving himself a mountain to climb.
It looked like Fritz had shaken that off in the third set though, as he took the first three points, but Sinner held out, not losing his serve.
Yet it was Fritz who earned the first break, taking a 5-3 lead.
But Fritz again lost his rhythm at the crucial moment – Sinner won the final four games, his triumph confirmed as his opponent hit it into the net.
The Italian Job is complete
It has already been a banner year for Sinner, who won his maiden grand slam final, beating Daniil Medvedev to claim the Australian Open.
And he has stood firm in New York, when other favourites, like Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, fell in the early rounds, adding to his superb record on the hard court.
Sinner is the second-youngest player to win the Australian Open and US Open men's singles title during the same season, after Jimmy Connors in 1974, during the Open Era.
Meanwhile, he is the third player to win the title at the US Open men's singles after dropping his opening set at the event in the past five decades after John McEnroe (1981) and Patrick Rafter (1998).
Following Aryna Sabalenka's victory on Saturday, two players have won the women's and men's singles titles at the Australian and US Open during the same season for the fifth time.
With two grand slam titles now in the bag, the world number one has proven just why he is worthy of that status.
Just out of reach
Fritz was not only playing in his first grand slam final, but he was the first American to reach the showpiece at the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2006.
Among players representing the United States, Fritz (26 years and 313 days) is the second oldest in the Open Era to reach a maiden men's singles final at a grand slam, after MaliVai Washington (27y 15d) at Wimbledon in 1996.
He was looking to emulate Roddick's success from 2003, ending a 21-year wait for a homegrown champion at Flushing Meadows.
Having already beaten high-ranking players like Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud en route to the final, Fritz had proven he was no pushover, but the world number one proved a different type of test.
Fritz was just lacking that cutting edge at the key moments, as a major title slipped out of his reach, but there is nothing to say that he cannot come back even stronger next year.
