Sinner opens two-set lead vs. Fritz in US Open final

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a is in a strong position to deny a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a notching his maiden Grand Slam title on home soil after taking a two-set lead in Sunday’s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a championship match. /p

p Excited home fans inside a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-ashe/a063/overview'Arthur Ashe/a Stadium are roaring on Fritz, the first American men’s singles finalist at Flushing Meadows since 2006, but Sinner has so far expertly cooled the atmosphere with a clinical display to lead 6-3, 6-4. He delivered an authoritative forehand winner on the first point of the match en route to an opening break of serve and, although Fritz reclaimed the break to level at 2-2, the World No. 1 continued to dictate proceedings in the first set. /p

p Sinner’s intent to move Fritz from side to side and not allow him to stand and deliver from middle of court was clear from the first game. With Fritz landing just 38 per cent (11/29) of first serves in the opening set, the Italian broke the American’s delivery again in the seventh and ninth games to ease ahead. /p

p Although Fritz found better rhythm behind his serve, so often his biggest weapon, in the second set, he was undone by a sloppy 11th game in which Sinner carved out the first break points of the set at 15/40. The Italian needed just one, as he arrowed a backhand down the line that forced Fritz to net to move within one set of becoming the first Italian men’s singles champion in a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a history. /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"Second set: secured ✅brbrSinner moves one step closer to the title ????a href="https://twitter.com/usopen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@usopen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#USOpen/a a href="https://t.co/VuqYDGJcMO"pic.twitter.com/VuqYDGJcMO/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1832864845038850153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 8, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

p Sinner is looking to become just the fourth man to win the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/australian-open/580/overview'Australian Open/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a on hard courts in the same season, after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mats-wilander/w023/overview'Mats Wilander/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a. The World No. 1 has enjoyed a stunning 2024, during which he has won a Tour-leading five titles and racked up a 54-5 record. He entered Sundayrsquo;s clash with Fritz on a 10-match winning streak, having clinched an ATP Masters 1000 crown in Cincinnati in his most recent tournament prior to the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a. /p

p Fritz is bidding to become the first American man to win a major title since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-roddick/r485/overview'Andy Roddick/arsquo;s 2003 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a triumph. The 26-year-old, who overcame his countryman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a in five sets to reach his maiden major final, is also chasing his first victory against a No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings at the ninth attempt. /p

pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/09/08/19/18/fritz-us-open-final-2024-sunday.jpg" style="width: 100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a" /br /

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a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a during the first set of Sunday's a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a championship match. Photo Credit: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images /sup/sub/em/p

p The American will hope that a star-studded crowd, a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/news/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-us-open-2024-final" target="_blank"one which includes celebrity couple Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce/a, can inspire a comeback in his third Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Sinner. Kelcersquo;s Kansas City Chiefs' teammate Patrick Mahomes, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, actors Matthew McConaughey, Dustin Hoffman and Eddie Redmayne, and singers Usher and Bon Jovi are also among those watching the title match at the final major of the 2024 season. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p