Jannik Sinner the man to beat after Cincinnati win while Aryna Sabalenka stays red-hot

Men’s world No 1 Jannik Sinner beat Frances Tiafoe 7-6(4), 6-2 in the Cincinnati Open, showing that despite recent health struggles he will still be the man to beat at the upcoming US Open in New York, while Aryna Sabalenka harnessed her powerful serve to subdue American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-5 in the women’s final in Ohio.
The 23-year-old Sinner, who has been struggling over the last couple months with a hip issue and who missed the Paris Olympics due to tonsillitis, was error-prone to start the contest and came up limping after several points in the tight first set. But he found his game in the tiebreak, absorbing the American’s powerful serve on set point. Tiafoe’s next shot sailed long as the Italian grabbed the opener.
Tiafoe, who has struggled to find momentum and wins this season, could not take advantage of his three break point opportunities in the first set and fell into a 2-0 hole to start the second from which he was never able to recover. Sinner rifled a forehand winner up the line for a 4-1 lead in the second and completed the win with an unreturnable serve on match point.
Sinner’s triumph at the Masters 1000 event follows his Grand Slam breakthrough at the Australian Open in January and is his fifth title of the year and first at the tournament in Ohio. Critically, Sinner has now shown that he can win even when not 100% healthy, an attribute he may need to utilise at Flushing Meadows where defending champion Novak Djokovic and world number three Carlos Alcaraz are the other hot favourites.
“It was a very difficult week, tough week. I’m very happy about today’s match,” Sinner said. “It was very tough mentally… We both felt a lot of tension, but I’m very glad about the level I played, especially in the important moments.”
Sinner said his sole focus now is on getting ready for the year’s final major. “Now, for sure, it’s important to recover, to be to be ready for New York,” he said. “I’m very happy to be in a position where I am and just trying to keep going mentally with this hunger to keep playing.”
Tiafoe will rise to world number 20 and will take confidence into the US Open after his gutsy three-set win over Dane Holger Rune in Sunday’s semi-final. “I’ve been struggling for a really long time so to have a week like this really means a lot,” Tiafoe said.
Earlier, the twice Australian Open champion Sabalenka dropped only nine points on serve and hit 10 aces as she overcame some jitters late in the second set in an otherwise confident performance to pick up her sixth WTA 1000 title.
Pegula had appeared to be in good form after she retained her title in Toronto earlier this month but she struggled with her serve, with five double faults, as her nine-match unbeaten run came to an end. Sabalenka got the break in the fourth game after Pegula whacked a forehand into the net and the Belarusian built on the momentum with a hold to love in the fifth, closing out the first set with an unreturnable serve.
She sent over a barrage of powerful forehands to get another break in the opening game of the second set but helped Pegula to get her lone break point with a double fault and a pair of unforced errors in the 10th game.
Sabalenka broke back immediately, however, and blew kisses to the crowd after she forced her opponent into an error on match point. She will move up one spot to No 2 in the rankings ahead of the US Open, which starts next week.
The performance removed any possible doubt that Sabalenka is one of the hot favourites at Flushing Meadows, despite a shoulder injury earlier this season that forced her to miss Wimbledon. She cruised through Cincinnati without dropping a set – including against the world No 1 Iga Swiatek – and will be out for revenge in New York after finishing runner-up last year.
“I want to thank my team – we’ve been through a lot but we never stopped working, never stopped improving ourselves and I’m really happy to have you by my side,” Sabalenka said.
Pegula had mistakenly used the name “Serena” instead of “Aryna” when talking about the Belarusian in an on-court interview after her semi-final, and she joked on Monday that the mix-up with the 23-times Grand Slam winner was fitting. “It felt like Serena [Williams] today with the way you were serving there,” she said at the trophy ceremony. “I may have wanted Serena instead of Aryna.”