Jannik Sinner continued his remarkable 2024 season with his second major title of both the year and his career after defeating Taylor Fritz in the US Open final.
It’s certainly fair to say that Jannik Sinner has had quieter months.
The world number one was criticised in brutal fashion by a number of leading ATP players after it was revealed that Sinner had failed two tests for a banned substance – allegations he has now been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Despite this controversy weighing over him, the ease at which he won his first US Open title becomes even more remarkable.
With not a single set dropped in his semi-final and final matches against Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz, the top seed blew the field away while others stumbled.
Andy Roddick lauds praise over Jannik Sinner’s ‘unbelievable’ forehand
Sinner was the favorite going in and made light work of his opponent Fritz, who was consistently being willed on by a 23,000-strong US Open crowd.
With Fritz admitting after the match that Sinner was quite simply just better on the day, Andy Roddick revealed that he was astonished by some of the Italian’s qualities.
Having not watched him in person much before, Roddick explained on his podcast ‘Served’ that Sinner’s movement and forehand were otherworldly.
“I’ll tell you what, I was at that match and this is the most I’ve watched Sinner in person over the last couple of weeks and really got down low court-side. His movement is insane for someone who is six foot four,” the 2003 US Open champion explained.
“To be able to get out of the corners and create stick and pace on the full movement. And when you watch him from that bird’s eye view, which I hate in tennis and we’ve been watching for like five decades, you can’t really understand movement and spin.
“His ball has so much more shape on it than I ever knew. He tops out on forehands and it’s still going hard through the court. Sinner has them all,” Roddick continued about the Italian’s repertoire of shots.
“From any ball position he can hit heavy line, heavy cross, heavy inside-out flat, heavy inside-out with speed, it’s just like the options from his forehand side are unbelievable. There were a million balls against Taylor Fritz where I thought he’d missed it by six inches and all of a sudden it was six inches in front of the baseline and the bottom drops out. It’s insane in person.”
Can Jannik Sinner carry this momentum into 2025 and defend his Australian Open title?
Suggesting that the world number one won’t be taking his foot off the gas anytime soon, Tim Henman said that Sinner was set to win over 10 Grand Slams.
Women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka has crowned herself queen of the hard-courts over the past two years, with two titles in Melbourne before her recent trophy addition in New York.
With the US Open title, the Italian improves his win-loss record to 55-5 in 2024, including a faultless 6-0 in finals.
He has been especially supreme on hard courts, winning an astonishing 35 of his 37 matches on the surface this year.
It was this time last year when Sinner started to accelerate, clinching the Davis Cup for Italy and defeating Novak Djokovic twice. This year he will be reluctant to deviate from that impressive path.
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