NEW YORK (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner withdrew from the U.S. Open on Friday, unable to recover from a right knee injury that has sidelined him since winning the Wimbledon title.
Sinner beat Alexander Zverev last month for his second straight title at the All England Club, but then pulled out of the hard-court tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati that serve as a warmup for the U.S. Open.
The 25-year-old Italian wrote Friday that he won't be ready when the main draw begins on Aug. 30.
“Even though I have been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year,” Sinner wrote in a post on X.
“We have been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days and have realized that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue. I’m obviously very sad and disappointed, as New York has a special place in my heart. I was very much looking forward to coming back and playing in the electric atmosphere in front of the great fans there.”
Sinner was the 2024 U.S. Open champion and lost to Carlos Alcaraz in last year's final.
Alcaraz posted on social media on Thursday that he would be ready to play in New York after he has been out of action since April because of a right wrist injury.
The rivalry between those two has dominated men's tennis in recent years, and they met in the last three Grand Slam finals in 2025. Alcaraz took the most recent one with his four-set victory in New York.
That ended Sinner's title reign after he beat Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the 2024 final.
Sinner is 44-3 with six titles this year. He had a stunning collapse at the French Open, blowing a two-set lead while struggling in the heat in his second-round match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He then sat out until Wimbledon, where his victory gave him five Grand Slam titles.
It will be the first time Sinner has missed a Grand Slam tournament since making his major debut at the U.S. Open in 2019.
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FILE - Jannik Sinner, of Italy, celebrates a point against Alexander Zverev, of Germany, in the men's singles final at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry and six others, including Elton John, have been ordered to pay an initial 9.5 million pounds ($13 million) to the publisher of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper following their failed invasion of privacy case.
In a judgment Friday, Justice Matthew Nicklin said in a written statement that the payment to Associated Newspapers Ltd. will have to be made by Aug. 28. The payment is at the upper end of expectations and marks a vindication for the journalists at the Daily Mail and a defeat for the losing claimants and their lawyers.
The claimants lost a High Court case in London last month during which they had alleged malpractice, such as the illegal hacking of phones, on the part of Associated Newspapers.
In excoriating comments accompanying his award, Nicklin said “several features” were important in his decision, including the “speculative” nature of the claims and the failure of the claimants to “voluntarily" withdraw serious allegations that could no longer be backed up.
"The conduct was unreasonable to a high degree," he said.
The publisher has said it incurred more than 34 million pounds during the case. Should it pursue the claimants for the remainder of the costs, then Harry and the six others will be liable for a further 25 million pounds or so by a later date.
The claimants are insured for around half that total.
Though the judge said the costs appeared “excessive,” he said he would not impose a cap that would have limited the claimants' liabilities as it would have been “too broad brushed, would risk unfairness, and would be vulnerable to the charge that it was arbitrary.”
The other high-profile figures behind the case were Doreen Lawrence, the anti‑racism activist whose son Stephen was stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus; Elton John’s film producer husband David Furnish; actors Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley; and politician Simon Hughes. Lawrence’s costs are expected to be covered by the others.
Hughes, a former member of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said he was “disappointed and surprised” that Associated Newspapers’ recoverable costs were not limited.
None of the other claimants have yet commented on the judge's decision. They have until Oct. 2 to decide whether to appeal.
The publisher had strongly denied the claims made during the 11-week trial in London, which ended on July 7 when Nicklin said there had been a shortage of evidence to support the 97 claims and found a possibility that the reporting came from legitimate sources.
In a statement following the decision, Associated Newspapers said the judgment is a “devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives."
“The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought," it said. "That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.”
The judgment comes two days after it was made public that Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are moving back to the U.K. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are no longer working royals, decamped to California more than six years ago but will relocate back later this month to live in a nonroyal residence outside London.
Harry's defeat against Associated Newspapers brought an end to a trio of lawsuits accusing tabloid publishers of using unlawful tactics, such as phone hacking or hiring private detectives to dig up dirt on his life.
Harry won a judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.K. tabloid, The Sun, made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life for years and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.
Harry has said his litigation — in which he broke with royal family tradition to seek relief in the courts — was a primary source of his falling out with his father, King Charles III, and brother Prince William.
His grudge with the tabloids runs deep and his legal actions are part of his larger quest to reform the news media that he says damaged his relationships and made him “ paranoid beyond belief.”
He blames the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, and for attacks on his wife, Meghan, that led the couple to abandon royal life and move to the United States in 2020.
Britain's Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, speaks at a roundtable about support for veterans, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
