Jannik Sinner beats Mackenzie McDonald to win Citi Open - The Washington Post

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Italian teenager Jannik Sinner weathered a nearly three-hour battle of stamina and will to win the Citi Open on Sunday and claim his third career ATP title with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 victory over American Mackenzie McDonald.

With the victory at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center, Sinner, 19, became the third-youngest champion in the Citi Open’s 52-year history, behind Andy Roddick, who was 18 when he won the title in 2001, and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, who won it at 19 in 2008.

While the shot-making was terrific in stretches, the grit and resolve shown by both defined the contest.

McDonald, 26, who was appearing in his first ATP final, played from behind for most of the match. But on the critical points, he proved an immovable force time and again, fighting off 16 of 21 break points before conceding.

“I had a lot of chances,” Sinner said, “[but] I couldn’t use [them] because, first, he was playing better in the crucial moments. But I tried to work for one more chance and for one more chance.”

In many respects, it was a victory as well for McDonald, who in his five years on the pro tour has experienced both highs and the profound setback of a hamstring tear that required surgery in 2019, just as he was on the cusp of a breakthrough.

There was scant reason to believe the 107th-ranked McDonald, who won 2016 NCAA singles and doubles championships at UCLA, would reach the final when the tournament’s draw was unveiled. Big hitters, bigger names and former Citi Open champions loomed — starting with 2019 champion Nick Kyrgios, whom McDonald sent packing in straight sets in the first round Tuesday.

He ousted No. 13 seed Benoit Paire on Wednesday, and he clinched his spot in Sunday’s final by wearing down 2015 champion Kei Nishikori over a nearly three-hour match Saturday littered with service breaks and shifts of momentum. In Sunday’s match, which lasted 2 hours 52 minutes, he became the only man to take a set from Sinner all tournament.

He will take home a $178,500 check (to the fifth-seeded Sinner’s $350,755) and will vault to 64th in the rankings by virtue of reaching the final.

McDonald commended Sinner during his on-court interview and said he was proud of his performance because it affirmed the work he has been putting in to recover from the hamstring injury.

“He pushed me really hard today,” McDonald said, “and I think I left it all out there.”

The match got underway shortly after 5 p.m., with sunshine blanketing the court and grandstands.

Neither Sinner nor McDonald is a grunter or emotes excessively. Instead of expending energy on showmanship, they pour it into their tennis, competing silently and with intense focus, leaving the cheers of “Come on!” and “Andiamo!” to spectators.

At 6-foot-2 and with a long reach, Sinner generates considerable power on his groundstrokes and is most comfortable firing a steady barrage of deep balls from the baseline to pin his opponents back.

But on break point in the fourth game, the Italian charged the net, coaxing a defensive floater that he smashed with an overhead to jump out to a 3-1 lead.

McDonald poured everything into breaking back, ripping returns down the line and running down Sinner’s blasts to get the score back on track.

The Italian broke again. But as before, McDonald produced his best shots on the pressure points. He did so after stepping up to serve at 2-5, as a fan yelled: “Chin up, McDonald! Let’s go!”

McDonald needed no urging. He held serve, then broke Sinner to make it 4-5.

Serving another must-hold game, McDonald fought off six break points.

He nearly repeated the heroics at 5-6, fending off five more set points until Sinner clinched the set on a netted forehand.

By then, 66 minutes into the tussle, shadows covered half the court as the second set got underway. Had McDonald faded at that point, he would have walked off to cheers, given the resolve he showed against Sinner less than 24 hours after his lengthy semifinal against Nishikori.

Instead, he raised his level, breaking the Italian to flip the script of battling from behind. And he leveled the match at one set apiece.

It was as much a battle of will as it was of skill entering the third set.

Sinner broke early and seemed to have the match in hand while leading 5-2. McDonald still had more. He erased two championship points while serving at 2-5.

And he and Sinner combined for the most thrilling rally of the match with McDonald serving another most-hold game, at 4-5, yanking each other side to side, until Sinner blasted a sharply angled cross-court volley that McDonald lunged for full out, racket extended as he slipped and fell to the court.

In many ways, the point, which went to Sinner, summed up the contest fittingly — hard-fought, full of great shot-making and played to a virtual draw that could have been claimed by either man.

Earlier Sunday, the doubles title went to fourth-seeded Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan of Japan, who defeated the second-seeded tandem of Britain’s Neal Skupski and New Zealand’s Michael Venus, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

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