This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Jannik Sinner raised his ATP Tour-leading total of 2024 tournament championships to five by beating Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the final of the Cincinnati Open on Monday in Mason, Ohio.
Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian who was the event’s No. 1 seed, heads to next week’s U.S. Open as one of the favorites. He be will searching for his second Grand Slam title of the year after claiming the first of his career in January at the Australian Open.
The Cincinnati draw gave Sinner a stern test, as he needed three sets to get past both sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia in the quarterfinals and third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany in semifinals.
“It has been a tough week, some ups and downs, which is normal to have,” Sinner said. “But how I handled the very important moments in each match, I’m very happy.”
Sinner followed up his championship in Melbourne, Australia, with titles at Rotterdam, Netherlands; Miami; and Halle, Germany. He reached the semifinals of the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing in five sets each time.
Tiafoe, a 26-year-old Maryland native, made it to the Cincinnati final as an unseeded player. He was the first American to reach the Cincinnati Open final in 11 years, and he saved two match points in the third set of his semifinal win over 15th-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark.
The first set of the final featured no service breaks, and Sinner squandered a set point at 5-6 on Tiafoe’s serve. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Tiafoe went ahead 4-3 before Sinner won the next four points.
Sinner broke Tiafoe’s serve to open the second set, then did so again for a 4-1 lead to pull away. He finally sealed the victory on his fourth match point spread over two games.
“I’m very happy about today’s match,” Sinner said. “It was very tough mentally. Had such an amazing run here, and I tried to do my best today. We both were quite tired from yesterday. We both felt a lot of tension, but I’m very glad about (the) level I played today, especially in the important moments.”
Looking forward, Sinner said, “It’s important to recover, to be to be ready for New York. This is our main goal here for this U.S. swing. I’m very happy to be in a position where I am and just trying to keep going mentally, having this hunger to keep playing, and hopefully I can show some good tennis also New York.”
Winston-Salem Open
Two Australians, 16th-seeded Rinky Hijikata and Aleksandar Vukic, logged three-set victories in the second round at Winston-Salem, N.C.
Hijikata overtook France’s Arthur Cazaux 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), while Vukic upset fourth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-1.
The rest of the day’s action consisted of first-round matches. The winners included Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, Belgium’s David Goffin, Frace’s Alexandre Muller, Australia’s Christopher O’Connell, China’s Juncheng Shang, Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker and two U.S. players, qualifier Learner Tien and lucky loser Zachary Svajda.
–Field Level Media
