(September 6, 2024) FLUSHING, NY – World No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy has reached his first US Open final on Friday when he defeated lefty Jack Draper of Great Britain 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Friday afternoon. He is a win away from winning his seond major of the year. He won the Australian Open in January.
He is the first Italian man in the Open Era to be in two major finals.
He’ll play the winner of the night match between Americans [12] Taylor Fritz and [20] Frances Tiafoe on Sunday afternoon.
The three-hour and three-minute match saw the 23-year-old Sinner hit 11 aces and hit a total of 43 winners . He has leveled his record agains the Brit to 1-1. The last and only other time they played was in 2021, when Draper beat Sinner.
In the first set sinner produced the first break to go up 4-3 but the 22-yera-old Draper returned the favor in the next game for 4-4. Sinner broke serve in the eleventh game to go up 6-5 and held to close the set 7-5.
The second set was complicated for both players, Sinner injured his left wrist ona point and Draper threw up on the court a couple of times. Both men had medical visits at the same time. The set ended in a tiebreaker, but one could see that Draper was tired,
In the third set a tired Draper won a mere 17 points to Sinner’s 31. The Italian broke the Brit’s serve twice to end the match.
“I thought it was a decent level from both of us, especially the first two sets,” Draper said. “Very physical. I think the first couple of sets were about 2 hours 15. It was tough having both of them not go my way.
“I thought obviously Jannik plays at such a high level all the time. Had chances here and there and I didn’t take them. Obviously when you play the best players in the world, you need to do that.
“Yeah, I obviously wasn’t feeling my best and struggled at certain periods of the match, especially towards the end. Jannik beat me fair and square. He was too strong for me today.”
“Tough match,” said Sinner. “Physical match. Playing against Jack, it’s never easy. He served very well.”
“Yeah, felt like it was a very tough match. So happy to win this one.” Sinner said to open up his news conference.
“Trying to find my game, trying to find our rhythm. I started off the first day losing the first set, I was set and break down going, you know, through that one. Just trying to find confidence throughout the days. We practiced very hard in the days in between, you know, trying to prepare each match in the best possible way.”
Asked about his wrist injury, Sinner noted: “the physio loosen it up very fast on court, so after I felt okay in the beginning. Then after it went away by playing, which is good.
“Let’s see how it is tomorrow when it’s cold. It’s gonna be a different feeling. Hopefully is nothing to concern about.
“I’m quite relaxed, because if it’s something bad, you feel it, no, straightaway a bit more. Yeah, let’s see how it is.”
Draper had a career tournament. Reaching the semifinals will move him up to No. 20 in the world.
Sinner talked about the atmospher in the final playing someone from the United States: “I mean, it’s right, the atmosphere is what’s gonna be. I mean, we are in America, we are in New York playing against an American, so it’s gonna be, for sure, the crowd a little bit more on their side.
“But it’s normal. It’s like when I play in Italy, no, it’s a bit the same. So I’m gonna accept that. I have my team and my people who are close to me. In my mind, I know that there are many people watching from home from Italy, and it’s just take some support from them.”
On playing either Fritz or Tiafoe in the final, the Italian said: “Well, big serve. Very solid player from the back of the court. He can hit strong. He can hit with rotation. He can mix up the game very well. He has played a lot this year, so, you know, he has a lot of rhythm of the match.
“Yeah, if he wins or if wins Frances, whoever is going to be in the final, they deserve to be in the final. So it’s going to be a tough match, in any case. If it’s Frances, we just played the final in Cincinnati. You know, he’s a very good mover, a good serve also. He can mix up the game with the slice. You know, he’s coming a little bit more to the net than Taylor.”
