NEW YORK >> There they both sat in the second set of their U.S. Open semifinal on a humid afternoon Friday, simultaneously receiving treatment from trainers: Jannik Sinner got his left wrist massaged after falling during a point he managed to win; Jack Draper needed medical attention after vomiting twice.
The top-ranked Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, who was exonerated in a doping case less than a week before play began in New York, was the better player throughout and finished off a 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over Draper to reach his first title match at Flushing Meadows — and second at a Grand Slam tournament his year.
“It was a very physical match, as we see,” said Sinner, who is a righty but uses both fists for his backhands and kept flexing his left wrist after it got hurt. “I just tried to stay there mentally.”
While both competitors were being looked at during a changeover, a vacuum was being used to clean up the green ground behind the baseline where the 25th-seeded Draper, a 22-year-old from Britain, had thrown up, finishing the cleaning job he tried to do himself by wiping the court with a towel. It hearkened back to when Pete Sampras lost his lunch during a win over Alex Corretja during the 1996 U.S. Open — and created, to say the least, an unusual scene Friday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the temperature was in the high 70s and the humidity was above 60%.
Sinner won the Australian Open in January and will seek his second major championship on Sunday against No. 12 Taylor Fritz, who defeated his good friend No. 20 Frances Tiafoe in five sets, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the first Grand Slam final of his career.
Fritz and Sinner have a 1-1 head-to-head record.
“Whoever it is,” Sinner said prior to the match, “it’s going to be a very tough challenge for me. But I’m just looking forward to it.”
Word emerged last month that Sinner failed two drug tests eight days apart in March but was cleared because he said the trace amounts of an anabolic steroid entered his system unintentionally via a massage from a team member he since has fired.
That whole episode has been a constant topic of conversation as he progressed through the U.S. Open bracket.
With his victory, Fritz became the first U.S. man in a Slam title match since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009 — and if he were to defeat Sinner, it would give the United States its first major trophy for a man since Roddick triumphed in New York in 2003.