Jannik Sinner, of Italy, hits a return to Daniil Medvedev, of Russia, during a semifinal match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 29, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida.
| Photo Credit: AP
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Jannik Sinner is starting to dominate.
Sinner overwhelmed third-seeded Daniil Medvedev 6-1 6-2 on Friday in the semifinals of the Miami Open to improve to 21-1 this year.
The second-seeded Sinner, rock-solid with his firecracker forehand, became the first man to reach back-to-back Miami Open finals since John Isner did it in 2019. In last year’s Miami final, Medvedev prevailed over Sinner at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins.
This time, Medvedev’s three games tied his career low for wins in a match. He committed 22 unforced errors.
“I’m happy about this season — who wouldn’t be happy?” Sinner said.
“I know the players will get to know me more and study me so I have to be ready.”
Sinner, 22, will play in the final Sunday against 11th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who beat No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev in the other semifinal after knocking out top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.
Sinner began his revenge against Medvedev for last year’s Miami final by beating him in the Australian Open final in January — rallying from two sets down — and setting the stage for a wonderful 2024 campaign.
Sinner posted his fifth straight win over Medvedev, all in the past 12 months.
“He’s serving ten times better,” Medvedev said.
“He always served well but now he serves big, big.” This match was a lot easier than Australia in the 80-degree South Florida heat as the Italian jumped to a 5-0 lead at the outset in posting two straight breaks of the Russian’s serve. It was over in 69 minutes.
Sinner’s opponent in the final, the surging Bulgarian Dimitrov, backed up his upset of Alcaraz by pulling off a win over the German Zverev in a three-setter, 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4.
With fans chanting “Gri-gor, Gri-gor” and several Bulgarian flags waving, the match went on for two hours, 36 minutes.
The victory gave the veteran Dimitrov back-to-back wins over top-5 opponents for the second time in his career.
As such, Dimitrov should surge into the top 10 for the first time since 2018.
“Whatever I say doesn’t do it justice,” Dimitrov said.
“I fight my own battles. I run my own race. All that comes with the work we all put in as a team. I’m at a very different path in my life and my career. … I kept on believing. This is just a cherry on the cake.”
Dimitrov has lost two of three matches…
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