Rafael Nadal won his third US Open and 16th Grand Slam title with a one-sided victory over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in New York.
The world number one powered to a 6-3 6-3 6-4 victory in Sunday’s final at Flushing Meadows.
The Spaniard, 31, has now won two Slams in the same year for the first time since 2013, having won the French Open in June.
“It’s just unbelievable what happened this year,” said Nadal.
“After a couple of years with some troubles, injuries, sometimes playing not good – since the beginning of the season it has been very, very emotional.”
The US Open was the last Grand Slam where he was working alongside his uncle Toni, with Carlos Moya taking sole charge of coaching from 2018.
“I can’t thank him enough for all the things he did for me,” Nadal said of his uncle.
“Probably without him I would never be playing tennis and it’s great I had somebody like him pushing me all the time.”
The result means this year’s major titles are shared between Nadal, at the French and US Opens, and Roger Federer, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Federer remains at the top of the men’s all-time Grand Slam list with 19 titles, three ahead of Nadal, who has now won 10 French titles, three US, two Wimbledon and one Australian.
BBC
