by Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Jannik Sinner is the king of South Florida today, as Mark Petchey said on Tennis Channel after the Miami Open final, and tomorrow he will rule the world.
It certainly seems as though Sinner will soon become the world’s No. 1 player and his destructive run to the singles title at the Miami Open moved the Italian to the No. 2 ranking for the first time. His display at Hard Rock Stadium served further notice that Sinner will be one of the main protagonists in this generation of men’s tennis.
After a 6-1, 6-2 ruthless run through Daniil Medvedev in the Miami Open semifinals, Sinner was almost as merciless against Grigor Dimitrov in the final, posting a 6-3, 6-1 victory, his 22nd win in 23 matches so far this year that included his first major singles title at the Australian Open.
Sinner’s serious assault on the top ranking began in the last quarter of 2023. After a fourth-round five-set loss to Alexander Zverev at the U.S. Open, Sinner won the titles in Beijing and Vienna and finished the year with a 20-2 run that included a runner-up finish to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final of the Nitto ATP Finals in front of the home fans in Turin, Italy (After beating Djokovic in round-robin play earlier in the week). Sinner also led Italy to the Davis Cup title, which was the first major accomplishment on a resume if you want to one day be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Sinner didn’t lose his momentum in 2024, upsetting the 10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic in the semifinals and Medvedev in the final for his first major title in Melbourne. After winning the title in Rotterdam, Sinner experienced his only blip in his 2024 season so far, falling to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of Indian Wells in a preview of what will likely be the rivalry in men’s tennis in the next decade.
The Miami Open title was the third-time charm for Sinner after falling in last year’s final to Medvedev inside Hard Rock Stadium and losing to Hubert Hurkacz in the 2021 final that was played in front of limited fans on the facility’s Grandstand Court due to the COVID-pandemic.
