Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia will face 10th seed Jannik Sinner of Italy in the final of the Miami Open on Sunday. The 21-year-old Sinner will be gunning for his first Masters 1000 title after having disposed of Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal.
Medvedev, meanwhile, is at the peak of his powers and probably remains the most consistent hard-court player in the world along with Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The 27-year-old Russian was beaten in the final at Indian Wells in March and will look to set the record straight in Miami.
On that note, we will take a look at two things to watch out for in Sunday’s final:
Both players relying on their powerful backhands:
Both Medvedev and Sinner have very powerful backhands and will be relying a great deal on them in the final. One can expect to see a lot of crosscourt backhand exchanges.
However, this is where the approach of the two players varies from each other. Medvedev typically likes to prolong the rallies by continuing to play crosscourt backhands, while Sinner prefers to often pull the trigger quickly by going down the line. The Italian also uses the backhand slices more often than Medvedev.
It remains to be seen how far successful Sinner becomes in disrupting the rhythm of Medvedev by playing those shots.
Daniil Medvedev’s serve vs Sinner’s return:
Sinner’s return of serve has improved a lot in the past year and he will fancy his chances against the mighty serve of Daniil Medvedev. Sinner’s powerful crosscourt backhand return will also be an effective weapon against Medvedev’s second serve.
Still, the Russian will back himself to get a lot of easy points with the one-two combination of his serve and forehand. Medvedev’s forehand is quite effective in dispatching the short balls for winners, but he relies more on his backhand while playing from the baseline.
Moreover, Sinner’s net skills are marginally better than Medvedev’s and the Italian should try to drag his opponent to the net by playing drop shots quite often. Getting points through drop shorts and volleys is not Daniil Medvedev’s forte, but the Russian could use his height to hit a few overhead smashes
Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
