The Italian Jannik Sinner won the first Miami Masters 1,000 of his career this Sunday by winning 6-3, 6-1 against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the final, which also allowed him to reach second position in the world ranking from which he stands apart. to the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner, 22, increased his record to 22-1 in his extraordinary 2024, in which he added the Miami trophy to the Australian Open and Rotterdam. In total, he has won 24 of his last 25 matches and 41 of 44 since the last US Open.
The Italian, who had lost the 2021 finals against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz and the 2023 finals against the Russian Daniil Medvedev, won his second Masters 1,000 title in Miami after that of Toronto 2023.
Starting this Monday, Sinner will reach number two in the ranking, the best position of his career, and will snatch it from Alcaraz who was eliminated in the Miami quarterfinals precisely because of Dimitrov.
The Murcian is the only player who has managed to beat Sinner this season. He did it two weeks ago in the Indian Wells semifinals, on the way to the title won in the final against Medvedev.
This time Sinner triumphed after a tournament in which he only lost one set in six games and in which he showed an unbeatable state of form and confidence. He is the first Italian capable of winning this tournament and the only one to have reached second position in the ranking.
He also finished 2023 by winning the Davis Cup with Italy, a title that the transalpine country had not won since 1976.
The Miami final barely lasted 73 minutes and was a Sinner monologue from start to finish. Dimitrov had the first break opportunity, when he was 2-1 up in the first set, but Sinner canceled it out and converted his break point in the following game with a great through parallel drive to give the first blow to the match.
The Italian served with power and quality and took 100% of the points when he connected with his first serve, which allowed him to consolidate that break and get another in the ninth game to take the first set 6-3 in 42 minutes.
Dimitrov, who reached this final after eliminating Alcaraz and the German Alexander Zverev with outstanding performances, was surpassed by Sinner’s complete game and was unable to win what would be his second Masters 1,000 title after Cincinnati 2017.
The Bulgarian, who will be number nine in the world this Monday and will return to the top-10 for the first time since 2018, entrusted himself to his service in the attempt to stay in the match, but after maintaining his first first turn, he gave it up in the second . Sinner took a 3-1 lead and consolidated the break at 30.
He achieved another break in the following game and held his serve to zero to put his hands on the third trophy of his season and second position in the world ranking to enter the clay court season as the man to beat.
