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2024 US Open Men’s Final: Jannik Sinner secures his 2nd major title over USA’s Taylor Fritz in straight sets in New York

by Sports Benches

The 2024 Grand Slam Tennis season has ended this morning at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York with a thriller US Open men’s Final where one of the next generation superstars & current Australian Open Champ Jannik Sinner (Italy) secured his 2nd major title over USA’s Taylor Fritz in straight sets by 6-3, 6-4 and 7-5.

Hats off to Sinner on an excellent championship-winning performance, who simply couldn’t resist the best of Fritz, as his result goes to reflect these high standards set in today & tomorrow’s elite Tennis world. His opponent there may not been Novak or Alcaraz but it’s still a Final and Sinner was never out of place all along, especially when playing on the hard courts. Sure, there’s some room for improvement when it comes to Roland Garros and Wimbledon. But as said, he’s always good on the hard courts considering his great success at these Aussie and US Open grand slams as well as last year’s Davis Cup triumph for Italy.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t the match Taylor Fritz was hoping for in front of his home fans where he too wasn’t bad against this next generation champ in Sinner. He had some great moments at times that could’ve sparked a huge shift when he was so close to at least winning a set of each one in this US Open Men’s Final. However, he just couldn’t quite find the checkpoint that put him under all sorts of pressure before it was too late off the back of some poor double fault serves, etc. He came back from a long way where he’s been improving throughout the 2024 Grand Slam season with 2 x Quarter-Finals followed by a breakthrough Final on home soil & sure this isn’t going to be the last we’ll see the best of Fritz going into 2025.

Now bring on Davis Cup week starting Tuesday/Wednesday AM our time in Valencia, Spain where our Aussies are set to begin their journey with matches against France & Czech Republic before we finish off the weekend v hosts Spain. 

Let’s hope we can get that November Finals spot booked in on time with our great line-up led by Team Captain Lleyton Hewitt that features Alex De Minaur (depending on his hip), Thanasi Kokkinakis & Alexei Popyrin including our strong doubles arsenal with the likes of Matt Ebden, Jordan Thompson & Max Purcell.

We’ve been in the big dance twice even though the Aussies didn’t win that trophy while seeing Canada and Italy dominate centre stage back in 2022 & 2023 respectively. However, our best crop of men’s players are still trending everywhere with De Minaur always in the last 8 over his last three grand slams; So does Ebden & John Peers who won Olympic gold in Paris last month, and don’t forget Purcell & Thompson yesterday as well in the men’s US Open doubles Final win. 

So lots to look forward with the best of Australian Tennis over the next few months between now and this summer ahead of the next Australian Open at Melbourne Park from mid to late January.

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2024 US Open Tennis Men’s semi-finals day in New York review: Sinner def. Draper in straight sets while Fritz caps off magnificent comeback after a long five-setter v Tiafoe

by Sports Benches

So there you have it, the 2024 US Open Tennis Men’s semi-final day at Arthur Ashe Stadium was a joy to watch – one was Jannik Sinner so dominant & top good for Jack Draper while Taylor Fritz held back strong v Francis Tiafoe after a long five sets out of the best American winner. 

Now it’s the current Australian Open champ Sinner v the ever improving American Fritz for Sunday’s big Final (Monday 4am) with Aryna Sabalenka v USA’s own Jessica Pegula up first for the women’s main event tomorrow (6am).

Semi-Final Match 1

First of all, it was never an easy game when playing at a top-notch semi for the first time by the rising Brit in Draper, who defeated our Aussie own Alex De Minaur in the quarters the other day. He had some great moments to begin with the first two sets where he was so close to tying Sinner 1-1 but was underwhelming for the majority unfortunately, having lost the first set for the first time in this tournament before being quickly wiped out in the end. 

Meanwhile, we haven’t heard much for a while from Sinner but he still had a terrific year though including today’s semi v Draper, as this will be his 2nd grand slam final also on a hard court. Gotta say he was at his best where his next match v Fritz is going to be as good as it gets. He was tested with great difficulty by the Brit before Sinner won all two sets with a 2-0 lead and the Italian simply wrapped up the game without a fuss to book his next biggest match yet in three straight sets.

Semi-Final Match 2

Now this second semi was the one Americans long wanted to see in front of a brilliant crowd including some celebrity guests with both Americans who played one stellar of a match. But again, one can go through to Sunday’s Final which Fritz won while another will have to be eliminated from the last four in Tiafoe.

Commiserations to Tiafoe having made a good start alongside some brilliant fight to try and keep himself in the game with the first and 3rd set wins. It’s a shame he began to have slipped away in the 4th and even 5th sets before it was too late unfortunately. It would’ve been great if Tiafoe kept on pressuring Fritz as if Tiafoe was closer towards activating match point; But at the end of the day, you’re looking at a fighter who always been there & done that at major finals before in Fritz.

And congrats to Fritz on a stunning win from behind to beat Tiafoe as he’s the next American to play in a US Open men’s final since 2003 winner Andy Roddick back in 2006. Sure he had some near set wins & had Fritz won it, the match would’ve finished like the first semis game but this is about someone who never gives up. All he wanted to do is walk away was the win to punch his ticket into the main event & he has done it in the toughest of circumstances where he will be tested once again in the hope of finally winning his home grand slam v Sinner after his ever-improving 2024 season at age 26.

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Olympics Tennis News: Carlos Alcaraz too good for Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi with Matt Ebden & John Peers also on their way to an Olympic Gold Final in the doubles

by Sports Benches

What a way to finish off Friday here with two brilliant semi-final Tennis matches we’ve just saw tonight at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris coming from Stade Roland Garros where Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz was too good for Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets (6-1, 6-1) & so does our Aussie doubles pair of Matt Ebden & John Peers (7-5, 6-2) also in straight sets during the 2nd men’s doubles semi against USA’s Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz. Alcaraz will await his next opponent for Sunday’s gold medal match between the winner of the other men’s semi-final in either Serbian legend Novak Djokovic or Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti (another Wimby rematch from last month) later on while Ebden/Peers isn’t done with Team USA just yet going into tomorrow night where they will take on Austin Kraijcek & Rajeev Ram for the Men’s Doubles gold medal match.

It wasn’t Auger-Aliassime’s day today having came here off a great run up until this point including two good wins against Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round and Norway’s Casper Ruud in the Quarter-Finals the other day. However, going up against a seasoned grand slam champ is never easy to say unfortunately and that proved too good to be true other than some early head starts v Alcaraz. His time isn’t done yet with the Bronze Medal match tomorrow to hopefully give Canada another medal against whoever loses the other semi final in either Djokovic or Musetti. Looking at Alcaraz now, he’s simply unstoppable – that’s all! He too never looked out of place having dominated all two sets en route to an Olympics gold medal Final. Looks like it’s going to be another round of Alcaraz v Djokovic if Djokovic can win v Musetti again later on as the young Spaniard would love to win another major honour at the same Court Phillipe Chatrier all in the one year this time for gold.

And how good was Ebden and Peers on what has been an unreal performance to hold off Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz in straight sets. That first stage was really close where they both found a way to get out unscathed and although they had a few bumps along the way with the 1-0 lead but at least both Ebden and Peers took their time well to wrap all things up for the semi-final win. Hard luck to Paul and Fritz by the way who weren’t far off the pace of Ebden and Peers throughout the opening set but struggled mightily to stay in the game during the set, even though a couple of late saves wasn’t enough to warrant them a big turnaround from there. Now Ebden and Peers are one stop closer now to emulating “The Woodies” pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde from Atlanta 96′ if they can get this done tomorrow & Australia is surely right behind them.

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AO Tennis 2024, Day 1 of the Quarter-Finals review with Djokovic & Sinner both unstoppable over Fritz & Rublev while Sabalenka was too good for Krejcikova

by Sports Benches

The rest of last night during the opening day Australian Open Quarter-Finals other than the three hour, three set women’s match was massive that began with a four set showdown followed by back-to-back straight sets successions as we head into the other half last 8 matches later today & tonight at Rod Laver Arena. Taylor Fritz went so close before he won the 2nd set on what has been a great 1st half effort but Novak Djokovic still holds the court all along to book his place in the semi-final while Jannik Sinner got around Andrey Rublev in the closest of matches & he too has done in straight sets going into Friday as Djokovic’s next opponent. Plus, it’s going to be Coco Gauff v Aryna Sabalenka again this time in the semi after Sabalenka was too good for Barbora Krejcikova.

For Fritz, he had amazing display that pushed Djokovic to the limit earlier on where he was oh so close in the first set followed by a 2nd set win at last to share the lead at 1-1. But just couldn’t kick on when it comes to the 2nd half form unfortunately and that’s where Djokovic eventually caught him out in the end as he had another great finals run here. As for Djokovic, he had some early setbacks against an early finals challenger despite having the early lead. He was able to respond really well like an seasoned champion though for the majority that got him over the line first and the Djoker is ready to take on a challenger who is tipped to win a grand slam trophy sooner rather than later in Italian Jannik Sinner.

Meanwhile, Rublev’s time is over as always where he has still yet to play past the Quarter-Finals after he broke the hearts of Alex De Minaur the other day in the fourth round. He wasn’t bad at the start where he had some great challenges to keep it up with his opponent. But just didn’t have the execution needed to stop Sinner in his tracks unfortunately despite being so close earlier on. On the other hand, Sinner is having the form of his life right now ahead of his 2nd grand slam semi-final after Wimbledon last year this Friday. He had a wonderful start while he never gave up and was being patient the whole way through to win all three sets to become Djokovic’s next opponent, which should be a cracker to watch. A young rising star v an experienced grand slam champ is something Sinner won’t want to hide & show he can live up to his potential at 22 after a great 2nd half of 2023 that includes the Davis Cup title win for Italy.

And looking back at the 2nd Quarter-Final women’s singles game, that was one was so quick in contrast to what we saw between Coco Gauff & Marta Kostyuk earlier in the afternoon. Krejcikova knows how to get the ball rolling but wasn’t consistent unfortunately where she just could not keep it up with Sabalenka for the overall lead. She hasn’t been bad in her last few AO appearances but needs to kick on from here, having had a great 2021 season with her French Open title as well as another Quarter-Final in the US Open before there not much else since then. Sabalenka on the other hand has been so dominant to meet all ends of the court including the other half bridge in particular that blew Krejcikova away. But she has a tough match-up ahead tomorrow night against someone who defeated her in the US Open Final a few months ago named Coco Gauff. She has gone through a series of easy challenges so far up until this next match, but she is the reigning champion here & have been a regular finals competitor throughout last year as Sabalenka won’t take Gauff lightly in order to try & take another grand slam title, which is the same Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.

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