MIAMI/WASHINGTON, March 28 2024 (by Michael Dickens)
World No. 3 and second seed Jannik Sinner won his ATP Tour-leading 20th match of the season at the Miami Open over No. 60 Tomas Machac, 6-4, 6-2, in 91 minutes Wednesday afternoon by combining a steady offensive output combined with relentless intensity.
The victory advanced Sinner to his fourth semifinal of the season in his fourth tournament of 2024. On Friday, Sinner will face World No. 4 and third seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia. The defending Miami Open champion defeated No. 22 seed Nicolas Jarry of Chile, 6-2, 7-6 (7), in a hour and 41 minutes Wednesday night for his 9th straight Miami victory. Medvedev improved to 18-3 this season in reaching his fourth semifinal in four tournaments.
Sinner struck 16 winners – 10 of the from his forehand side – and converted four of 11 break points, including two in the second set, when he broke Machac in consecutive service games to jump out to a 4-1 advantage. He outpointed his opponent 70-52.
20th win of the year for the Italian 🔥 @JannikSin notches a straight set win over Tomas Machac 6-4, 6-2 to reach the semifinals in Miami. #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/AAdbZkMg3w
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) March 27, 2024
“I didn’t exactly know what to expect today,” Sinner said during his on-court, post-match interview. “The first games I was looking a little bit what kind of tactics could work or not. … Today I played good, especially in the important moments of the match. I’m really happy to play again in the semis here.”
Sinner, twice a Miami Open finalist (in 2021 and 2023), has reached his third semifinal in south Florida. He remains in hot pursuit of winning his second career ATP Masters 1000 title, following his triumph in Toronto last summer. He has already captured crowns at the Australian Open and Rotterdam this season, which were his 11th and 12th career tour-level titles.
First 🤣
With his victory today @janniksin (20-1) is the first player to reach the 20-win mark on the ATP Tour in 2024. #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/K5oAaV01S8
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 27, 2024
The loss ended a tremendous run for the 23-year-old Machac, who strung together four straight wins including victories over World No. 6 and fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia and former No. 1 Andy Murray of Great Britain. A first-time ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinalist, Machac will move up to No. 43 in next week’s PIF ATP Rankings.
Sinner gave props to Machac after the match. He said: “He has an incredible talent I think to play this sport. He is super fast also physically, he’s in great shape.”
Meanwhile, Medvedev set up a rematch of his Australian Open final with Sinner after holding off Jarry in a second-set tie-break to win in straight sets. A win would advance Medvedev to his third final in four tournaments this season.
“The first set I thought I was playing a good level, not doing anything extra, just enough to win,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “Then he started to play much better and it was tough rallies, tough points. He served better and it was just a matter of a few points in the tie-break.”
“I was expecting he would get a lot of support from the Chileans and it was a good atmosphere.”
Medvedev outpointed Jarry 70-57 with the aid of 11 winners. He won 80 percent of his first-serve points and converted two of four break-point chances.
Divine 9️⃣
The moment @DaniilMedwed locked up his ninth consecutive #MiamiOpen win, 6-2 7-6(7) over Nicolas Jarry. pic.twitter.com/3SyVmN96kA
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 28, 2024
Around the Miami Open
With two semifinal doubles berths still up for grabs, No. 2 seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Austin Krajicek of the United States faced Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, and No. 4 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina opposed Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
Granollers and Zeballos prevailed in their quarterfinal as the Spaniard served an ace on match point to pull out a 7-6 (4), 3-6, 12-10 victory in an hour and 44 minutes in which they saved a match point at 8-9 in the match tie-break. They will face No. 1 seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Matthew Ebden of Australia in the semifinal round on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Dodig and Krajicek advanced to face No. 7 seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany, who had already advanced to the semifinals, after beating Melo and Roger-Vasselin, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4), in one hour and 51 minutes.
Los 4⃣ #ATPMasters1000 más recientes:
📍Shanghái: Campeones
📍París-Bercy: Cuartos de final
📍Indian Wells: Final
📍Miami: Semifinales*🇪🇸 Marcel Granollers y 🇦🇷 @HoracioZeballos persiguen en #MiamiOpen su segunda final consecutiva.
— ATP Tour en Español (@ATPTour_ES) March 27, 2024
Wednesday’s Miami Open results
Thursday’s Miami Open order of play
By the numbers
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany reached his 27th ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal following his 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 15 seed Karen Khahchanov of Russia late Tuesday night. He tied Stefan Edberg, Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for 11th-most quarterfinals at this level since the series began in 1990.
“Quotables …”
“I would say before the match, the desire to win is the same, but for sure the feeling of winning is different. I remember my first win, I was 5-1 up in the second and was shaking, trembling, thinking ‘Oh my god I’m going to win my first ATP match’. Now it’s like, ‘If I win, good for me, I just need to finish it, and we go home’.
“So the feelings are different, but the desire is I would say the same, and that’s what keeps me going.”
— Daniil Medvedev, during his on-court interview Tuesday after defeating Dominik Koepfer to achieve his 350th career ATP Tour singles victory.
The difference between a 1st and 350th ATP win… 😂👏@DaniilMedwed @MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/XvMoSOB48L
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 26, 2024
