Daniil Medvedev beat Jannik Sinner 7-5, 6-3 on April 2, to be crowned at the Masters 1000 event in Miami.
In the fifth consecutive final, Medvedev overcame Sinner – who lost to him in all five previous meetings. The Russian tennis player won four ATP tournaments in the past month and a half, winning 24 of the last 25 matches. During his career, Medvedev won 19 ATP titles, in 19 different tournaments. He won five of the six Masters 1000 hard courts in Miami, Toronto, Paris, Shanghai, Cincinnati, and was a finalist in the other at Indian Wells.
Difficulties came to Medvedev early in the game, when he had to save five break-points, then lost the serve game and was 2-3 down. But in the next game, the 26-year-old won the ball game thanks to a series of self-defeating errors by Sinner. Also from a game the opponent made many mistakes, Medvedev went ahead and won 7-5 in the first set.
In the first set, Medvedev won 55% of the points from defense, well above the league average (32%). Sinner, who was not in good shape after the match, did not show the ability to attack as fiercely as in the semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz. The Italian player lost the first two serve games of the second set, then was led 1-4. Medvedev firmly held the late game to win the final 7-5, 6-3 after one hour and 34 minutes.
The last time Medvedev won the Masters 1000 was in Toronto in August 2021. “I haven’t won a major title like this in a year and a half,” he said after the match. “At the end of the game I was a little shaky, so serving was more difficult. I had to try to calm down, to finish the game.”
Medvedev is the player with the most wins on the ATP this season, with 29 matches, far ahead of second-placed Sinner and Norrie (21 matches). The Russian tennis player rose to fourth in the world according to this week’s updated scoreboard, while Sinner also entered the top 10 with a runner-up record.
In the women’s singles, Petra Kvitova interrupted Elena Rybakina’s 13 wins to win her 30th WTA title. Kvitova won 7-6, 6-2, in which the score in the first set tie-break was 16-14. At the age of 33, the Czech female tennis player is the oldest person to win the WTA Miami Open, since Serena Williams in 2015.