US OPEN champion Jannik Sinner is the toast of Italy after the world number one down top ranked American Taylor Fritz in Flushing Meadows overnight to claim his second Grand slam title. After breaking through for his maiden major at the Australian Open earlier in the year, Sinner overcame home crowd favouritism to win 6-3 6-4 7-5.

Fritz – who was in his first Grand Slam final having never made it past the quarter finals stage coming into the tournament – put up a real fight throughout the three sets, and even went a break up in the third set looming large and set to force a fourth out of Sinner.

However the Italian found a way to break break and won the last four games of the set, and match, t oget up in two hours and 16 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I did pretty well I guess,” Sinner said post-match.

“This title means so much, because the last period of my career was really not easy. I love tennis, I practice a lot for these stages. I understood, especially in this tournament, how important the mental part is in this sport. I’m very happy, very proud to share this moment with my team.”

Sinner’s ability to continually produce off his serve saw him win 88 per cent of his first serce and 48 per cent off his second serve. It made life difficult for Fritz who was able to break twice from seven chances, but the Italian achieved the feat six times.

Fritz whacked six more winners (29-23) but also hit 13 more unforced errors (34-21) as Sinner was able to capitalise off the American’s mistakes to win 42 per cent of his receiving points throughout the match.

Sinner became just the third man in the Open Era – and first since 1977 – to win his first two Grand Slam titles in the same season.

“Incredible, no? So many big wins for me this season. Starting off with Australia and playing so well there which gave me confidence ’til now,” Sinner said. “The work never stops. I know I can still improve. As we saw today, a couple things.

“You have to be proud of what you have. The rest, you have to go for it and work for it. I can’t wait for my continued process.”

Meanwhile in the men’s doubles final, Australian duo Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson went one better than their losing Wimbledon final effort to defeat German 10th seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in straight sets, 6-4 7-6.

Thompson and Purcell needed 94 minutes to take home the victory, hitting three less winners (26-29) but three less unforced errors too (15-18), while breaking twice compared to the German’s once. The Aussies’ 78 and 59 per cent success rate off the first and second serve points were superior to their opponents’ 67 and 57 per cent.

“I feel like we were the better team,” Thompson said. “I don’t really say that too often, but from the get-go, I thought we were creating chances and we just played a really good, clean match today.”