Grigor Dimitrov has become the first male tennis player to discover that it might be just as hard to beat \u201cThe New Two\u201d of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at the same tournament as it was to beat \u201cThe Big Three\u201d (or even just two) of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer at the same event. The cumulative effect of trying to find a way past two players who, at their best, are almost unplayable is too much for most players. Thus Dimitrov, having dispatched Alcaraz with relative ease in the quarterfinals in Miami, was ultimately beaten relatively easily by Sinner in the Miami Open final.<\/p>\n
For a time in Florida, it had looked as if Dimitrov would emerge as the story of the tournament because he had been producing his best form for probably the last five or six years. First, he achieved the seemingly impossible in the last eight, namely making Alcaraz look and play \u201clike a 13-year-old\u201d (as the 20-year-old Spaniard himself admitted) in beating him in straight sets. Then, arguably even more impressively, he backed up that magnificent display by beating Sacha Zverev in three hard-fought sets in the semi-final, to gain his first win over the German in over a decade.<\/p>\n
Against Sinner, however, Dimitrov found out just how hard it is to \u201cthreepeat\u201d in any sport, even in three successive matches, let alone three successive seasons. The brilliant Bulgarian, who has reminded everyone that he is more than good enough to beat anyone (including Alcaraz), just could not maintain the same level he had shown against Zverev, let alone reach the exalted level he had risen to against Alcaraz. As a consequence, he lost in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.<\/p>\n
The enormous improvements that Sinner has made to both his serving and his return games were evident against Dimitrov in the Hard Rock Stadium (the tennis stadium within a much larger American Football stadium that is the relatively new home to the Miami Open). As Colin Fleming, one of the co-commentators on Sky Sports Tennis, pointed out, ever since Wimbledon last summer, when Sinner lost rather meekly to Djokovic in the semi-final, he has made a number of small but significant technical adjustments to his serve, including a lower ball toss to speed up the whole service action, which has yielded great dividends.<\/p>\n
Equally, though, Sinner\u2019s return game, which has always been good, has simultaneously improved greatly in the last six to nine months. Indeed, against Dimitrov, he was so often firing back 100mph-plus returns on either wing that the Bulgarian was unable to hold his serve more than three times in the first set and only once in the second.<\/p>\n