Jannik Sinner’s straight-sets victory in the US Open final against Taylor Fritz secured the Italian his second Major victory of the year, consolidated his position as World No.1 and confirmed the suspicion that he is the greatest male player on hard courts. However, what is arguably even more important than all those achievements is that Sinner’s US Open win completed a remarkable 12-month turnaround for the Italian, from contender to multiple Grand Slam champion, which has included Davis Cup triumph, failed drug tests and ultimately two Major titles.
US Open final Was the Last Trial In a Year Full of Them
Beating an American in their home Major is probably one of the hardest tasks in tennis, such is the vociferous and often partisan nature of New York crowds. To do so in a US Open final, and to do so against the first American man to reach a US Open final for nearly 20 years, is an even greater accomplishment. Yet that is precisely what Sinner achieved.
The irony is that what on paper should have been Sinner’s greatest achievement of the last year was ultimately one of his most straightforward achievements of the year. The fact is that since losing fairly limply to Alexander Zverev in the last 16 of the 2023 US Open, Sinner has undergone a series of far greater trials and tribulations, both on and off the court, that would have broken someone who was less mentally and physically resilient. To have come through them all and emerge triumphant is a testament to his extraordinary abilities, especially his mental strength.
In fact, for Sinner the last 12 months can be regarded as a five-set match, or even a great five-act drama, at the end of which he is a completely different player and probably a completely different person.
Act One: Winning in Beijing Against a Major-Quality Field
It is often said that tennis never stops, because there is such a short off-season at the end of the calendar year (barely a month or so, most of which is taken up with pre-season training for the following season). But the Major season in tennis does come to an end with the US Open in early September, even if there is about a third of the season still to come, including the Asian swing, the European indoor season, the end-of-year tournaments, and the Davis and Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
The post-Major part of the season, from September to November, is often overlooked or even forgotten, precisely because it does not include any of the Grand Slam tournaments that are the quadruple peaks of the tennis year. Yet for some players, it is the most important part of the tennis year, as it gives them the opportunity to reinvent themselves for the following season and then start it with a bang.
The single best example of that is Novak Djokovic in 2010. After losing to Rafael Nadal in the US Open final in September 2010, he went on to win the Davis Cup with Serbia, had his gluten intolerance identified (which finally allowed him to end his seemingly ceaseless health issues) and went on to win the very next Major, the 2011 Australian Open, before going on to dominate men’s tennis for the next decade.
In a remarkably similar vein, Jannik Sinner began his transformation into the best male tennis player in the world after a disappointing defeat at last year’s US Open. Within a month, he had won the Beijing Open in China, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal in straight sets (even breadsticking him, for the loss of just one game, in the second set) and Daniil Medvedev, who he had never beaten before, in the final.
At the time, I wondered whether Beijing might be the making of Sinner. It turns out that it was.
Act Two: Winning the Davis Cup – and Beating Djokovic Twice To Do So
Sinner maintained his Beijing-winning form for the rest of 2023, winning the tournament in Vienna and even beating Djokovic in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin. However, Djokovic showed all his own fabled “bouncebackability” by beating Sinner in the final in Turin, in straight sets, to reassert immediately his stranglehold over the young Italian.
That is what made Sinner’s feat in leading Italy to Davis Cup triumph in 2023 (for only the second time in the country’s history) so astonishing, because it included a weekend of performances that were so remarkable they fully deserved the epithet that I bestowed on them: The Miracle of Malaga.
First, Sinner gained instant revenge on Djokovic not once but twice, by beating him in both singles and doubles in Italy’s semifinal with Serbia. As I wrote at the time, there are many players who have gone their entire career without beating Djokovic once, but Sinner did so twice within a matter of hours, and in both major formats of the sport.
Even then, however, Sinner’s miracle-making in Malaga was not done, because he had to face Australia and in particular Alex de Minaur the following day, despite the Australian team having had a full day’s rest after winning their semifinal against Finland. And yet Sinner spared the International Tennis Federation, the organisers of the Davis Cup, the difficulty of having to justify such an embarrassingly unfair schedule by beating de Minaur easily to win his country the greatest team tournament in men’s tennis.
Act Three: Coming From Two Sets Down to beat Medvedev in Melbourne
Having beaten a Major-class field in Beijing, particularly in the semifinal and final, and then won the Davis Cup for his country, Sinner was highly fancied to win his maiden Major in Melbourne earlier this year, especially after he again beat Novak Djokovic, for the third time in succession, in the last four. However, after two sets of the Australian Open final against Daniil Medvedev, it seemed unlikely, to say the least, that Sinner would ultimately emerge victorious. And yet that is exactly what happened, as he completed the finest comeback of the year in tennis right at the start of it.
In one sense, it was not completely shocking that Medvedev ended up running out of steam in the Melbourne final, as he had played two five-setters in the quarterfinal and semifinal against Hubert Hurkacz and Alexander Zverev, respectively, with the latter match lasting over four hours and finishing after midnight local time. Nevertheless, Sinner still showed all the physical stamina and mental fortitude that have become his trademarks to prevail in five sets.
There still remains one big question to be asked about Sinner, which is about his durability in really long or even epic matches, specifically those that last over four hours. To date, he has lost every one of the seven matches he has played that have gone on beyond that mark, and any future opponents in Majors, particularly Alcaraz and Djokovic, will certainly know that and try to extend him beyond it. But for now, at least, he remains virtually unbeatable in five-set matches, or at least those that do not extend into a fifth hour.
Act Four: The Revelation He Had Failed Two Drug Tests Earlier This Year
As in most great plays or novels, act four of Sinner’s year proved to be the most difficult and it is arguably one that he has still not overcome and indeed may never overcome completely. That was the revelation on the eve of this year’s US Open that he had failed two drugs tests earlier in the year after clostebol, a banned steroid, was found in his system.
Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing by the tennis authorities, including the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which accepted his explanation that he had been inadvertently contaminated by close contact with his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who Sinner subsequently sacked, along with another member of his physical training team.
Nevertheless, Nick Kyrgios and Denis Shapovalov were certainly not alone in condemning the haste and secrecy with which Sinner’s two failed drug tests were treated, certainly in comparison with other players who have been failed drug tests in the past, notably Simona Halep. For many people, Sinner should not even have been allowed to compete in the 2024 US Open, let alone win it, and there will forever be a syringe-shaped cloud hanging over him.
Equally, Sinner was comprehensively cleared of any deliberate wrongdoing, has always protested his innocence and has gained the backing of many others in tennis, including Rafael Nadal, who insisted that he was convinced that Sinner was not a deliberate doper. And at the very least, the fact that he went on to win a Major after the revelation of a drug scandal on the eve of it is yet another testament to the extraordinary mental resilience of Sinner.
Act Five: Winning the US Open Against a Home Player
As I said at the outset, winning a US Open final against a home player would have been, in any normal year, probably the biggest challenge that Sinner could have faced. However, after beating Djokovic twice in one day, coming back from two sets down to win his first Major and surviving the lazer-like scrutiny that he has been subjected to since the revelation of his failed drugs tests, withstanding even Taylor Fritz’s giant serve and forehand was relatively easy for Sinner.
The suspicion remains that Sinner would have faced a far harder task if he had played Frances Tiafoe rather than Taylor Fritz in the final. A more openly demonstrative, indeed heart-baring, player than Fritz, Tiafoe might just have been capable of generating more crowd support than Fritz. But the fact remains that Tiafoe, by his own admission, effectively choked in the final set of the semifinal, or at the very least was completely consumed by nerves, and so did not progress to the final to face Sinner.
Instead, it was Fritz who faced the Italian and ultimately failed. But he will not be the last to face Jannik Sinner in a Major final and be completely overwhelmed. After 12 months of trial and transformation, Jannik Sinner really is a completely different player and now it is perhaps only Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic who can even compete with him, let alone beat him, at the top of the men’s game.
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
