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But he found his game in the tiebreak,
absorbing the American's powerful serve on set point. Tiafoe's
next shot sailed long as the Italian grabbed the opener.
Tiafoe, who has struggled to find momentum and wins this season,
could not take advantage of his three break point opportunities
in the first set and fell into a 2-0 hole to start the second
from which he was never able to recover.
Sinner rifled a forehand winner up the line for a 4-1 lead in
the second and completed the win with an unreturnable serve on
match point.
Sinner's triumph at the Masters 1000 event follows his Grand
Slam breakthrough at the Australian Open in January and is his
fifth title of the year and first at the tournament in Ohio.
Critically, Sinner has now shown that he can win even when not
100% healthy, an attribute he may need to utilize at Flushing
Meadows where defending champion Novak Djokovic and world number
three Carlos Alcaraz are the other hot favorites.
"It was a very difficult week, tough week. I'm very happy about
today's match," Sinner said in his on-court interview.
"It was very tough mentally... We both felt a lot of tension,
but I'm very glad about the level I played, especially in the
important moments."
Sinner said his sole focus now is on getting ready for the
year's final major.
"Now, for sure, it's important to recover, to be to be ready for
New York," he said.
"I'm very happy to be in a position where I am and just trying
to keep going mentally with this hunger to keep playing."
Tiafoe will rise to world number 20 and will take confidence
into the U.S. Open after his gutsy three-set win over Dane
Holger Rune in Sunday's semi-final.
"I've been struggling for a really long time so to have a week
like this really means a lot," Tiafoe said.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Himani
Sarkar and Stephen Coates) [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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