Carlos Alcaraz congratulated rival Jannik Sinner with an eight-word message after the Italian won his maiden US Open. Sinner defeated home favourite Taylor Fritz with a commanding performance in the final.
The 23-year-old won in straight sets and battled back from 5-4 down in the final set, breaking Fritz twice late on. His 6-3 6-4 7-5 victory landed him his second Grand Slam of the year, having won the Australian Open at the start of 2024.
Sinner is now only two major titles behind Alcaraz but the Spaniard was happy to congratulate the newly-crowned champion. Taking to social media platform X, Alcaraz quote-tweeted the US Open’s post about Sinner winning the tournament.
The 21-year-old wrote: “Congratulations, Jannik! You deserve it! Enjoy the moment!”
Sinner has cemented his place as the world No. 1 with his triumph over Fritz. He is now more than 2,000 points clear of the second-ranked Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz has fallen to third after a surprise early exit at Flushing Meadows.
Having climbed to the top of the rankings, Sinner said his US Open success was extra special after overcoming a “not easy” build-up to the tournament. It was revealed six days before that he had twice failed a drugs test in March.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) ruled he had been inadvertently contaminated by his physio, Giacomo Naldi. Sinner split from Naldi and his fitness coach, Umberto Ferrara, in the days before the US Open.
“This title means so much because the last period of my career was not easy,” Sinner said.
“It (the investigation) was and still is on my mind. It’s not that it’s gone, but when I’m on court, I try to handle the situation the best possible way.
“I’m happy how I handled this one. I’m just excited to have this trophy with me.”
Meanwhile, Fritz insists he has the confidence to reach more Grand Slam final after reaching his first at the US Open. He was unable to break a 21-year wait for an American major champion.
“I know that there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” the 26-year-old said. “And something I’ve said throughout my entire career, whether it’s when I won my first ATP point or I won my first challenger or I made my first round of 16 or whatever it is, I’ve always said once I do something once, I just feel a lot more confident in being able to do it again.”
