GB's Skupski & Salisbury suffer heartbreak in final
British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski suffer heartbreak against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the US Open men’s doubles final.
British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski suffer heartbreak against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the US Open men’s doubles final.
Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals on Sunday when they won the US Open.
The Spanish-Argentine duo will make its sixth consecutive appearance at the season finale, which will take place at Inalpi Arena in Turin from 9-16 November.
Granollers will compete in the year-end championships for the 10th time, having earned his place in the event four times — with Marc Lopez and Ivan Dodig — before partnering Zeballos. He lifted the trophy in 2012 with Lopez and made the championship match in 2023 with Zeballos, who has only played in the Nitto ATP Finals with the Spaniard.
Entering the season, the veterans had never combined for major glory. They not only did just that at Roland Garros, but repeated the feat at Flushing Meadows.
Granollers and Zeballos also claimed an ATP Masters 1000 crown in Madrid and lifted the trophy in Bucharest. They are 3-0 in finals so far this year.
The six-time qualifiers are the second team to earn their place in Turin so far, joining Wimbledon champions Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have qualified in singles.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos endured a long wait for their first Grand Slam title as a team. Now, they have won two in the space of four months.
Granollers and Zeballos pulled off a remarkable escape from three championship points down to overcome Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 on Saturday and claim the US Open trophy. With their thrilling two-hour, 24-minute win, the Spanish-Argentine duo became the first men’s doubles team to win multiple majors in a season since 2019.
The 14-time tour-level titlists Granollers and Zeballos have enjoyed consistent success since joining forces in 2019 but they were 0-3 in Grand Slam finals until their Roland Garros triumph in June, when they also defeated Salisbury and Skupski 7-5 in the deciding set to lift the trophy. On Saturday in New York, they showcased cool under pressure to hold off Salisbury and Skupski, crucially rallying from 0/40 at 3-3 in the second set before doing the same when three championship points down at 4-5, 0/40 in the third.
Having let slip two break points in the following game, Granollers then produced the pivotal moment of the match. He fired a rocket forehand return winner against a Skupski serve down the middle, and the Spaniard then served out to clinch the title.
Now up to second in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, Granollers and Zeballos are in strong contention to secure Year-End ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by PIF honours. They trail leaders Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool by just 830 points.
More to follow…
[NEWSLETTER FORM]There could hardly be a more fitting way to round out the 2025 Grand Slam season than a US Open showdown between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
The great rivals, who between them have lifted the past seven major titles, will make history in New York when they become the first players in the Open Era to contest three Grand Slam title matches in the same season. Yet unlike their championship-match clashes at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, there will be a double prize on the line when Sinner and Alcaraz meet inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday from 2 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CEST.
Whoever clinches the title in New York will simultaneously ensure that they are No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday. Sinner has held top spot for 65 consecutive weeks, while Alcaraz is aiming to return to a position he last held in September 2023.
Sunday’s winner-takes-all blockbuster could also be crucial in the battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours. Alcaraz leads Sinner by 1,890 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, but the Italian can close that gap to 1,190 points with the New York title. Both players have already qualified for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.
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Sinner and Alcaraz’s rivalry has developed into one of the most gripping in modern sport, and it was in New York three years ago when it first charged into the public consciousness. Alcaraz saved a match point in an epic five-set quarter-final victory en route to the 2022 US Open title.
Any on-court tussle between the two since has been preceded by intense hype and anticipation, and both players have regularly responded by producing scintillating performances. Yet before this year at Roland Garros, Sinner and Alcaraz had not met in a Grand Slam final. As the duo prepares for its third consecutive title match at a major, that gap in their rivalry now seems a distant memory.
“I love these challenges. I love to put myself in these positions,” said Sinner on Friday when asked for his thoughts on yet again having Alcaraz as his final opponent. “He’s someone who pushed me to the limit, which is great, because then you have the best feedback you can have as a player. We have faced each other quite a lot now lately, so things are getting a little bit different.
“Always when we step on court, we are aware of maybe more things, because him or me, we try to prepare the match tactically and in different ways… It’s great for the sport having rivalries, having hopefully great matches in front of us. And then we’ll see. I’m someone who loves these challenges, and I love to put myself in these positions and to see how it goes.”
The rematch everyone wanted 🤩@janniksin 🆚 @carlosalcaraz for the title! 🏆@usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/RRzpZzaWbA
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 6, 2025
Alcaraz enters Sunday’s final with a 9-5 lead in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Sinner, and their New York showdown will be the fifth meeting between the pair in 2025. All of those have been finals, with Alcaraz triumphing in Rome, at Roland Garros (after coming back from two sets down and saving three championship points) and in Cincinnati (where Sinner retired due to illness), and Sinner prevailing at Wimbledon.
“I always take things [from] the previous matches. If I’m playing against Jannik, obviously I’m going to take things about the last matches that I’ve played against him,” said Alcaraz after his semi-final victory against Novak Djokovic in New York. “The last one or the last three matches, I’m going to take note, and I will see what I did wrong, what I did great in the matches, just to approach the final in a good way.”
Both Sinner and Alcaraz have been in imperious form this fortnight at Flushing Meadows. Top seed Sinner, who is on a 27-match winning streak at hard-court majors, has dropped just two sets across his six matches, while second seed Alcaraz has not dropped a set and was clinical in seeing off record 24-time major titlist Djokovic in the last four. Even after all their successes so far, however, both players have frequently spoken about their constant desire to keep developing.
“I think physically he has improved a lot, and that obviously wasn’t a secret,” said Alcaraz of Sinner, who took a medical timeout for a stomach issue during his semi-final win against Felix Auger-Aliassime but later declared it was ‘nothing to worry about’. “He has spoken about the physical conditions that he has to improve, and I think the last year, the last two years, he has improved a lot physically.
“His matches are really demanding physically that he’s able to play at his 100 per cent during two, three, four hours, and I think that’s the biggest improvement he has made in the last years.”
Men To Win 3 Major Singles Titles In Single Season (Open Era)
| Player | Year Won 3 Majors |
| Rod Laver | 1969 (Won all 4) |
| Jimmy Connors | 1974 |
| Mats Wilander | 1988 |
| Roger Federer | 2004, 2006-07 |
| Rafael Nadal | 2010 |
| Novak Djokovic | 2011, 2015, 2021, 2023 |
| Jannik Sinner? | 2025? (Would win 3 with US Open triumph) |
Sinner, a relentlessly clean baseline ball-striker, will be eager to make early inroads on return in Sunday’s final. After defeating Auger-Aliassime, the Italian specifically mentioned Alcaraz’s serving when asked about his rival’s strengths. The Spaniard has lost just two service games across his six matches in New York so far, and he has faced only nine break points overall.
“He has improved a lot the serve,” said Sinner of Alcaraz, who is 54-6 for the season according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. “I feel like he’s serving much better with the better pace, but the percentage is very high all the time. Much more solid, for example, because maybe before there were more ups and downs. Now he’s very consistent.
“If you watch all the tournaments, he’s going very, very far. So many, many improvements. But I always say that when you are young, you know, one year or two years, they make big difference.”
While it hardly seems believable that the 24-year-old Sinner (an owner of four major titles) and 22-year-old Alcaraz (five major titles) can improve much on the mesmeric level they have repeatedly shown, fans have become increasingly accustomed to witnessing the unexpected from both stars. Sunday afternoon inside the 23,000-capacity Arthur Ashe Stadium is the perfect setting for another thrilling instalment of a rivalry that keeps on giving.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]How Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova overcame adversity, setbacks and emotions to reach the US Open final.
Jannik Sinner reassured fans following his US Open semi-final win against Felix Auger-Aliassime Friday evening that there is no reason for concern about his health. The Italian left the court to receive treatment on his stomach region after losing the second set.
“I just felt a small twitching after a serve when I served there in the second set on 4-3. After the treatment, was feeling much, much better,” Sinner said. “At some point I didn’t feel anything anymore. I was serving back to normal pace, so it was all good. Nothing to worry about.
“But I preferred to go off court because it’s on a different spot. So it’s all good.”
Despite being forced to leave the court and dropping his second set of the tournament, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings stormed back for a four-set win, making his fifth consecutive major final.
Sinner has won three of the past four Slams and can make it four of five if he defeats rival Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s championship match. The Italian is trying to claim his fifth major trophy.
“Amazing stats. I would have never thought that I would make this when I turned pro, and now I find myself here, so it’s amazing,” Sinner said. “I think five straight Grand Slam finals, it’s something great. The consistency and putting myself there in the later stages of the biggest tournaments we have, it’s amazing.
“But in the same time, I know it’s in the back of my head, whatever I’m doing, but in the same time whatever is done is done. I’m here. I have a very important day Sunday, and then we’ll see.”
The defending champion knows he faces a stern test against Alcaraz, who leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 9-5. Sinner held three championship points against the 22-year-old in the Roland Garros final, but fell short. The Italian then earned revenge against Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.
“I love these challenges. I love to put myself in these positions. He’s someone who pushed me to limit, which is great, because then you have the best feedback you can have as a player,” Sinner said. “We have faced each other quite a lot now lately, so things are getting a little bit different.
“Always when we step on court, we are aware of maybe more things, because him or me, we try to prepare the match tactically and in different ways. But sometimes it’s also nice to not play against him. It’s nice, but as I always said, it’s great for the sport having rivalries, having hopefully great matches in front of us.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]If there can be redemption in defeat, Felix Auger-Aliassime found it Friday night at Flushing Meadows.
Capping a career-reviving run to the semi-finals of the US Open that included victories over third seed Alexander Zverev, 15th seed Andrey Rublev and eighth seed Alex de Minaur, the 25-year-old Canadian gave defending champion Jannik Sinner all he could handle for large parts of their four-set semi-final encounter.
[ATP APP]To push the World No. 1 to 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 (after having five break chances to go up an early break in the third set) less than a month after a 6-0, 6-2 blowout to Sinner at the Cincinnati Open, Auger-Aliassime has plenty of reason to be optimistic for the remainder of the season.
“I played much better. I served much better,” he said of his rematch with defending US Open champion. “It was weird. In Cincinnati, we hadn’t played in years… and just the way he was returning, how fast he was playing, it just caught me off guard a little bit.
“I went down quickly. So it affected my game. But tonight I knew what to expect. He still had a great start, but I had much more belief that as the match would go on, I would find a good level and be competitive.”
Showing resilience after dropping the first set, the seven-time ATP Tour titlist conceded just one point on serve in a spectacular second set. He matched Sinner’s power from the baseline and showed flair and conviction in the forecourt, winning 22 of 31 points at net. Had he converted more than one of 10 break chances, the story could have been very different.
Asked to assess his run at Flushing Meadows, Auger-Aliassime said, “Well [I was pleased] with a lot of things… like the way I’m serving, the way I hit the forehand, the way I’m moving around the court, the backhand too. There’s many things.
“But on top of that it’s just the belief, the mentality, the conviction in myself that I have what it takes to win these type of matches. Even in tough matches, like the quarter-finals, there were probably times where I was playing my worst, so to speak. It was still good, but my worst throughout the tournament.
“But I was still believing that my time will come and I will play at a good level again. I think those kind of matches are gratifying for me. Yeah, I think the mentality is something that I’ve been working on and that was good this week.”
Surging eight places during the tournament to 10th position in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin, Auger-Aliassime is hoping to qualify for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the second time. But he offered measured comments when asked if he felt he could emerge as a true rival to the likes of Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
“Future will tell,” he said. “I don’t want to make too many predictions. Tonight, I just want to take a moment to soak in the tournament and everything that was good.
“You obviously build your future with what’s good in you, and then you try to improve a little bit step by step. So I’m just trying to take that all in.
“But to say how close my level is, we were fighting out there. We had some good points. I was going toe to toe at times, some sets dominating. Of course, I feel competitive, but the future will tell how close I am.”
The Canadian’s attention now turns to his wedding later this month to Nina Ghaibi in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Asked if he had been fitted for his wedding suit, he joked, “No, I was on court, man. You expect that I was on the phone call, like, immediately after the loss and figuring that out. No, I’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
Auger-Aliassime also said that he had yet to decide if he would be playing Davis Cup, which is just days before the wedding.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]For the third consecutive major, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will meet in the championship match.
After facing each other in an epic Roland Garros final, followed by a title clash at Wimbledon, this time the US Open title will be on the line. Alcaraz will enter the championship match with a 9-5 Lexus ATP Head2Head lead over Sinner. Should the Spaniard win, he would surpass Sinner to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time since September 2023. If Sinner wins, he will become the first man since Roger Federer in 2008 to defend the US Open singles title.
Who will lift the trophy on Sunday: Defending champion Sinner or 2022 winner Alcaraz? Vote in the poll below!
Read more from the US Open:
Sinner sets winner-takes-all Alcaraz final
Alcaraz gains Djokovic revenge, returns to final
Djokovic on Alcaraz & Sinner: ‘They’re just too good’
Sinner-Alcaraz final will decide World No. 1
Jannik Sinner comes through an injury scare to win his US Open semi-final against Felix Auger-Aliassime and set up another tantalising Grand Slam final with Carlos Alcaraz.
Jannik Sinner has set a blockbuster winner-takes-all US Open final with Carlos Alcaraz after a gritty 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime Friday night at Flushing Meadows, where he captured his 300th career match win.
Both World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings – which Sinner has held for 65 consecutive weeks – and the last title of the 2025 Grand Slam season will be on the line when the world’s Top 2 players meet Sunday from 2 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CEST. It will be the first time in the Open Era that two players have contested three major finals in the same season.
In a match even closer than the scoreboard suggested, Sinner had to dig deeper than at any stage in the tournament, fighting off nine of 10 break points against the 25-year-old Canadian, who refused to be bullied from the backcourt, matching the Italian’s power with a defiant and aggressive gameplan, that included 31 net approaches.
Auger-Aliassime levelled the semi-final after dropping just one point on serve during an inspired second set, after which Sinner, who had earlier shown signs of abdominal discomfort, left Arthur Ashe Stadium for treatment. Despite serving at reduced speed in the third set, Sinner played some of his cleanest tennis of the match, making just four unforced errors to his opponent’s 10.
The free-swinging Auger-Aliassme imposed himself from the baseline early in the fourth set and also found success at net, earning five break points across the Italian’s first two service games after a series of entertaining rallies. But after Sinner survived an 11-minute game to hold for 2-all, the 24-year-old claimed the decisive break in the next game and rode his big-match temperament to the finish line.
Sunday’s final between Sinner and Alcaraz will be a déjà vu moment for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who faced similar stakes against Casper Ruud in the 2022 US Open decider, which brought Alcaraz his first major title and marked his debut as World No. 1.
[ATP APP]The final also ensures a Grand Slam shutout for the second consecutive season, with an eighth consecutive major title guaranteed to finish in the hands of either the Italian or Spaniard.
Sinner set a fifth consecutive final meeting with Alcaraz in events in which they have both been in the draw. Alcaraz has won three of those finals (Rome, Roland Garros, Cincinnati, when Sinner retired ill); Sinner triumphed in the Wimbledon final, denying the 22-year-old a third consecutive title on the hallowed lawns.
Alcaraz leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry 9-5 and has won their past three meetings on hard courts.
The final will also have big implications in the battle to claim ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours. Should Alcaraz win the final and pad his current 1890-point lead in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin by a further 700 points, Sinner will face an uphill battle to finish back-to-back years at No. 1.
After reaching the US Open semi-finals for the second time, Auger-Aliassime has surged 14 places to No. 13 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, his highest mark since August 2023. He is 34-18 on the season according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss index
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