NEW YORK — As fans stood to celebrate the new US Open champion, Sloane Stephens turned and stared at her player’s box, thinking about the journey this year that took her from wearing a cast on her broken left foot to hoisting her first Grand Slam trophy. “It’s tough beating those guys because they have had so much experience at this level.”

Nadal, 31, is the decided favorite as he pursues his third U.S. Open title and 16th Grand Slam championship in his 23rd Grand Slam final. Much like Nadal's 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 win against Wawrinka at Roland Garros, the only beauty of this match was not in its competitiveness -- not by a long shot -- but in an appreciation for one participant's absolute superiority. Coming into this year's tennis season, sports writers and commentators were contemplating career obituaries for Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, rather than predicting that they would sweep the season's Grand Slams. The shoes were customized for Nadal, with “10” and “13” on the heel for his two wins at the U.S. Open coming into Sunday’s match. "Personally, it's just unbelievable what happened this year," Rafael Nadal said of winning two majors this year for the first time since 2013. Besides his triumph in New York, Nadal also won the French Open in June and has collected two major titles in the same year for the first time since 2013, when he won the last of his two US Open crowns. Surprisingly, it was 36-year-old Roger Federer who captured the other two majors this season — the Australian Open with a five-set win over Nadal, who initially was up a break in the final set, and at Wimbledon. Two problems with that: Anderson is not usually a serve-and-volleyer and so is no expert at that tactic; Nadal is superb at summoning passing shots at extreme speeds and angles, especially when facing the sort of target provided by the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson, the tallest Grand Slam finalist in history. World number 32 Anderson was the lowest-ranked US Open men's finalist since the ATP rankings began 44 years ago. The Johannesburg-born, Florida-based Anderson finished the 2hr 28min final with 40 unforced errors to Nadal's 11, failing even to carve out a single break point. Anderson came in having won 103 of 108 service games across six matches, but Nadal accumulated break points at will from the get-go -- two in a six-deuce game at 1-all, another two in a five-deuce game at 2-all.
Spain's Rafael Nadal defeats South African Kevin Anderson, 6–3, 6–3, 6–4, in the US Open men's singles final for his third championship at Flushing Meadows Park in the New York City borough of Queens. This is Nadal's second Grand Slam title this year, and his 16th overall.