Jannik Sinner, on Sunday, grabbed the second hard-court Grand Slam of the year by winning the US Open 2024 final against Taylor Pritz. This would go down as one of his finest career moments because of all the scrutiny he had to face in his doping case, before entering the tournament.
During the post-match presentation, the Italian was asked how he managed to fight these difficulties while not losing focus on the game in the past two weeks.
Replying to the question, Sinner said:
“I did pretty well I guess. We just went day by day, trying to practice well even on the days off, believing in ourselves which is the most important.
“I understood especially in this tournament how important the mental part is in this sport and I guess, in every sport.”
The World No.1 took a chance to express his gratitude towards those fans who came to cheer him on at the US Open 2024. With his choice of words, Sinner clearly took a dig his critics, who he felt slammed him without knowing or choosing to ignore the full details of the cases.
“So yeah, I am very happy, very proud to share this moment with my team. I know there are a lot of people watching from home but I would like to thank everyone for being so fair in this amazing arena,” Sinner added.
This was Sinner’s second major title and interestingly, both his titles came this year. He became only the fourth individual in the last 50 years to win his first two major titles in the same calendar year. Speaking about the same, Sinner told the anchor that though it was an ‘incredible’ year for him with all the massive victories, there is still scope for improvement as the ‘work never stops’.
Sinner’s entry into the US Open coincided with him being declared innocent of doping, as he had tested positive twice for Clostebol in March this year. This had put a lot of allegations on the Italian as the tennis world wasn’t aware of these tests until he was declared innocent by the ITIA.
However, despite all these allegations and social examination, Sinner didn’t let anything affect his mental health and stayed strong. His mental strength along with the united effort from his coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vognazzi, and other team members, helped him win in New York for the first time ever.
Another source of support for him was his girlfriend and the Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya, who decided to stay back in New York and cheered for her love from the stands in all his crucial games.
With this victory, his position as World No.1 has been cemented more strongly with an increase of 1,820 points and he is expected to end the year at the same spot. He also took home a whopping $3.6 million, which he got for being crowned as the 2024 US Open champion.
