Jannik Sinner record two big milestones with US Open 2024 win

Jannik Sinner won his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian open earlier this season.

World No. #1 Jannik Sinner has picked up a sixth ATP title of the 2024 season following his US Open 2024 win. Sinner leads the tour for most wins with six titles in the bag. The Italian joins his colleague on the WTA Tour, Aryna Sabalenka, in bookending their 2024 season with Grand Slam wins. 

A few hours earlier, Sabalenka overcame Jessica Pegula in straight sets to win the US Open for the first time. The Belruasian had won the Australian Open in January. Sinner picked up his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne earlier this year.

The same fate befell another American, Taylor Fritz, who failed to cross the final hurdle as he could not find the form that carried him into his maiden Grand Slam final. It was a double dose of the bitter pill for Americans as they had to cope with two losing finalists in as many days.

The 12th seed kept the hopes of the local fans alive when he was the last American standing in the event. Sinner extinguished those hopes on Sunday when he toppled the first American US Open finalist since 2006, with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 win in two hours and 16 minutes.

Also Read: Top five youngest male players to win Australian Open and US Open in same season ft. Jannik Sinner, Roger Federer & more

Contributing to Taylor Fritz’s loss were his 34 unforced errors. He could not make the most of the breakpoint opportunities given – 2/7(29%) to 6/12(50%) by Sinner.  The Italian was relentless and made just 21 unforced errors across the three sets. 

Fritz attempted a late charge in the third set, breaking Sinner in the seventh game of the decider. But by then, the writing was already on the wall, leaving Fritz unable to solve the Sinner riddle on this occasion.

Fritz had the backing of the Arthur Ashe crowd, including his namesake, Taylor Swift and her partner Travis Kelce of the NFL side Kansas City Chiefs. The support could not prevent the on-court fireworks by Sinner as he moved to a 2-1 head-to-head over Fritz.

2 – Jannik Sinner is second youngest player to win the Australian and US Open Men’s Singles titles during the same season in the Open Era, older only than Jimmy Connors in 1974. Meticulous. #USOpen | @usopen @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/Oe9Cu3N8rB

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) September 8, 2024

Unmindful of the A-listers, the wily Sinner, nicknamed ‘The Fox,’ completed the win with clinical efficiency. The Italian is the first man to claim his first two Grand Slam titles in the same season for 47 years.

Jimmy Connors (1974) and Guillermo Vilas (1977) are the two other men in the Open Era to have won their first two Grand Slam titles in the same year. It is a milestone that has proved elusive for the best in

the business, including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal.

The Italian has a stranglehold in the battle for ATP Year-End No. #1, after his title run in New York. He is 4105 points clear of second place Alexander Zverev in the Race to Turin. Sinner and Zverev have already qualified for the year-ending ATP Finals, with Carlos Alcaraz next in line to qualify.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz equally shared the Grand Slam spoils, winning two apiece. Sinner won the titles in Melbourne and New York, with Alcaraz pocketing the Roland Garros and Wimbledon trophies to complete the Channel Slam.

By completing a clean sweep of this year’s majors, the Italian and the Spaniard are the first players under 23 to have claimed the rare milestone in three decades. In 1993, three different players conquered the Grand Slams – Jim Courier in Melbourne (22 years, five months), Sergi Bruguera in Paris (22 years, four months), and finally Pete Sampras in London (21 years, ten months) followed by New York (22 years, one month).

A host of tennis stars, Billie Jean King, Gabriela Sabatini and Carlos Alcaraz, took to social media in an outpouring of congratulations for the latest player to etch his name on the winner’s board. Italian football side AC Milan chipped in with their congratulatory message on Twitter (now X).

Taylor Fritz will now focus on representing Team World at the Laver Cup in Berlin from 20-22 September. The top-ranked American finds himself at No. #7 in the live rankings and at No. #5 in the Race to Turin. While the result broken American hearts, it is not the end of Fritz’s journey towards a Grand Slam trophy.

After Taylor Fritz found the net with an attempted forehand on the first match point, Sinner scrambled into the stands to seal the win with a kiss from his partner, Anna Kalinskaya.

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