The wind played a factor throughout the match, with both players combining for 51 unforced errors (28 for Sinner, 23 for Rublev) and 12 doubles faults (five for Sinner, seven for Rublev). But Sinner also hit more than twice as many winners as Rublev—32 to 15—and fired 10 aces to keep himself on track, despite nearly letting a 5-1 lead slip in the third set.
“It took a lot of mental strength today,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “It was very tough conditions, very windy. In the first set, he started very well and I didn’t play my best tennis. But in the second set, I felt I had a lot of chances. I waited for my chance.”
Sinner later outlasted Alexander Zverev more than three hours in the semifinal, navigating a flare-up of his recurring hip problem, and beat Frances Tiafoe in the final to take the title.
4. Taylor Fritz def. Frances Tiafoe, US Open SF
The first all-American men’s singles semifinal at the US Open in nearly two decades saw Taylor Fritz cement his status as the top dog in U.S. men’s tennis.
Fritz’s 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 comeback win over Tiafoe under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium helped him do it. In a match that was tightly contested, if nervy, as both men sensed the enormous opportunity to reach a first major final, it was Tiafoe who held the upper hand for much of the match.
Up two-sets-to-one and threatening to break early in the fourth set with Fritz serving at 2-all, 15-30, but a pivotal 31-shot rally may have taken the gas out of Tiafoe, literally and figuratively. In Tiafoe’s 4-5 service game, he hit two double faults and two forehand unforced errors to drop serve from 40-15 up and the fourth set.
Read the match report: Fritz becomes first American man to reach a Grand Slam final in 15 years
