Carlos Alcaraz is the new US Open men’s champion, after a hard-fought yet decisive victory over Jannik Sinner, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. It’s Alcaraz’s sixth major (and third this year, after Australia and the French) and second US Open title (he won it in 2022).
For tennis fans, the on-court drama was more than enough to look forward to: the world’s number one men’s player and US Open defending champion (Italy’s Sinner, 24) squaring off against his chief rival and world number two (Spain’s Alcaraz, 22) in the final of the US Open. At stake wasn’t just bragging rights; the winner of today’s final would become (or remain) the world number one.
“I’m seeing you more than my family,” Alcaraz joked to Sinner at the trophy presentation. (Aside from being in a league of their own atop the ATP tour, the two have split this year’s major titles.)
Celebrities—tennis and otherwise—showed up in droves, from Dakota and Elle Fanning, Jessica Alba, Kevin Hart and Bruce Springsteen (attending his first-ever tennis match) to Irina Shayk, Walton Goggins, Usher, Martha Stewart, Lindsay Lohan, Lindsey Vonn, Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Steph Curry, Jalen Brunson, Jean Arnault, and Mindy Kaling, to name just a few. (The number of former world number ones was also daunting: Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Marat Safin, John McEnroe, and Juan Carlos Ferrero were all there to witness the unspooling of the rivalry that’s being dubbed the New Two.)
Still, it was the attendance of someone else that threw a wrinkle into today’s logistics: The somewhat belated announcement that President Trump would be at the final—as a guest of Rolex—caused some unwanted off-court drama as the start of the match was delayed by 30 minutes to allow the nearly 24,000 fans entering Arthur Ashe Stadium to move through added security measures. (The USTA also took the unprecedented step of asking broadcasters to “refrain from showing any disruptions”—which is to say, to censor what the viewing public would see—regarding Trump’s attendance. ESPN broadcasters, in the pre-match buildup, took great care to note that Trump has a history of attending the Open—though they left out the part about him being accused by two different women of sexual assault at the Open, in 1997 and 1998.)
