The cat is out of the bag, as the US Open is over and we know the winners, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, have claimed their crowns. But let’s rewind the playlist a bit. When the draw was yet to come out, who would you have picked as the winner? The former ATP legend, Jimmy Connors, might not have made his pick that early, but he definitely made his pick during the semifinal itself. Connors had some inkling during the quarterfinals between Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner. But how did his prediction go at the end? Did the American Taylor Fritz feature in it at all?

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic’s shocking exit from the US Open left the Grand Slam wide open for all players. The top favorites after that were the World No.1, Sinner, and the former US Open winner Medvedev. As the tournament proceeded further to the quarterfinals, the dust around the probable winner settled. In the recent episode of the podcast Advantage Connors, the father-son duo (Jimmy and Brett) analyzed the recently finished US Open and also revealed who they were backing to win the tournament. Interestingly, Taylor Fritz was never in consideration for the Connors.

Emphasizing Sinner’s dominating run throughout the hard court Grand Slam, Brett said, “He had the matchup that we were all talking about was that quarter-final against Medvedev ended up being kind of a weird match. All the sets were pretty one-sided, and the right ended up going four sets. But once he kind of took that, he kind of felt like it was his tournament to lose.” Rightly so, Sinner dominated the match from the get-go. Medvedev did bounce back by taking the 2nd set. But the Italian refused to give him any space after that and won 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

In the semifinals, Sinner met Jack Draper, a player who had a phenomenal run leading into the semis. However, Sinner breezed past him as well with another straight-set victory to proceed to the final. Moreover, he repeated his dominant run in the finals, as he outsmarted the home favorite, Fritz, in straight sets again.

However, Connors had predicted that during the semifinal itself. Talking about the match between Sinner and Draper, the legend said, “I was looking at the winner of that match….better win the tournament.” Medvedev too was a strong contender for the Connors, but after his ouster in the quarterfinals, the player that the father-son duo decided to back was the winner from the Sinner vs Draper match.

It seems Fritz never stood a chance to win the US Open, taking Connors’ perspective into consideration. Interestingly, Fritz himself was unsure of making it to the finals, had the draw not been open due to some big early-round exits.

Taylor Fritz opens up about his “nothing special” US Open gameplay

Taylor Fritz played exceptionally well at the US Open, but he didn’t give himself too much credit for his outstanding run. The 26-year-old candidly admitted after the final that because of the fact that some top players exited the tournament early, it allowed the others an opportunity to dig deep.

During an interview after his loss in the finals, Fritz said, “Obviously like Carlos and Novak and some people lost early on in the tournament, so it really opened up the draw a lot. You can only really beat who’s in front of you, but I think it’s really positive for me because I don’t feel at any specific point in these two weeks, I don’t feel I was playing amazing tennis. I feel I was playing solid, nothing special.”

Undoubtedly, the American star needs to do better than his best to win the Grand Slam titles. The competition is bound to get stronger in the upcoming season, because Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic would not want to give any space to others while chasing history. And one cannot forget the dark horses either. Nonetheless, what do you think about Taylor Fritz’s prospects moving ahead? Let us know in the comments.