10th seed Jannik Sinner beat top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 6-7 6-4 6-2 in a three-set thriller in the second semifinal at the ATP Miami Open on Friday. The match lasted for well over two hours, as the 21-year-old Italian managed to prevail in the end.
Jannik Sinner will play against fourth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the final on Sunday. The Italian, a runner-up in Miami in 2021, has been in great form so far in Florida and Medvedev will have to perform at his best to overcome his challenge in the final. But how did Sinner get the better of the Spaniard?
Alcaraz prevails in a highly entertaining first set:
The first set was of a very high quality, with the two players exchanging blows in a number of excellent baseline rallies. They also exchanged breaks quite frequently in the set. There were a number of crosscourt backhand battle between the two, but Alcaraz often changed the tempo of a rally by going for drop shots and thereby dragging Sinner into the net.
The Spaniard also hit a few great returns and, on one occasion, a sublime lob over the Italian. However, for all of Alcaraz’s flashes of brilliance, it was Sinner who got the first break of serve in the fourth game and then held his serve to go 4-1 up. Alcaraz broke back immediately and then got another break to serve for the set at 6-5. However, Sinner then broke Alcaraz to take the set into a tiebreak, only for the Spaniard to eventually prevail, hitting an ace on set point to wrap up the opener.
Sinner takes advantage of Alcaraz’s second serve
Sinner, whose return of serve has improved considerably over the last year or so, took increasing advantage of Alcaraz’s weaker second serve as the match progressed. The 19-year-old Spaniard hit one of his forehands into the net to hand Sinner a break in the ninth game of the second set and the Italian then served out the set.
Jannik Sinner then broke Alcaraz twice in the final set to finish the match in style. The Italian’s powerful groundstrokes often left the Spaniard struggling, as Alcaraz managed to win only 51% of the points on his second serve in the match. In comparison, Sinner managed a far more respectable 62% and that proved to be the difference.
Main photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
