Tennis
The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open 2025
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — For a couple of hours Saturday afternoon, even the unflappable Jannik Sinner looked as though he was about to enter a long line of reigning U.S. Open champions to be thwarted. Denis Shapovalov, the firecracker Canadian, had Sinner down 0-3 in the third set with a point for 0-4. But Sinner, as he so often does, recognized that there was a lot of tennis to play and asked Shapovalov if he could play it, too. Sinner prevailed, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
In an era of men’s tennis in which one or possibly two players have tended to lock up each individual major, the U.S. Open stands apart. Not since 2008 has a man successfully defended the title here, when Roger Federer won the last of his five U.S. Opens. All of the other majors have been successfully defended far more recently — either this year or last year, by Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz.
Since 2008, Novak Djokovic has gone on winning streaks of three in a row at the Australian Open (twice) and four in a row at Wimbledon. Rafael Nadal went on runs of five in a row and four in a row at Roland Garros. And Djokovic, who might have been expected to dominate here like he did in Melbourne and in London at his peak, has never managed to do so.
