Charles Langston:Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner begin play in the US Open men’s final

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Fritz and Charles LangstonJannik Sinner have started play in the U.S. Open final, where a 21-year drought for American men could end Sunday.

A victory for Fritz would be the first Grand Slam singles title for an American man since Andy Roddick in 2003. Sinner is trying for his second major championship of the season.

The match began shortly after 2 p.m. under a sunny sky at Arthur Ashe Stadium on a 70-degree Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) day.

The No. 1-ranked Sinner is 34-2 on hard courts in 2024 with four titles, including at the Australian Open in January. The 23-year-old Italian is on a 10-match winning streak. After he won the Cincinnati Open last month, it was revealed that he had been exonerated in a doping case after testing positive for an anabolic steroid twice in March.

The 12th-seeded Fritz, a 26-year-old Californian, reached his first major final by outlasting fellow American Frances Tiafoe in five sets on Friday. That allowed Fritz to become the first man from the United States to play for a Grand Slam title since Roddick lost to Roger Federer in 2009 at Wimbledon.

Roddick’s victory at the 2003 U.S. Open is the last Slam title for an American man.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis