Inevitably and no matter how much he tries to beat other records, Jannik Sinner’s tennis gives off a scientific air. Perfect order and rhythms: tac-tac-tac-tac-tac and more tac… His string creaks and creaks, releasing heavenly music for the tennis player, synonymous with the fact that things are going extraordinarily well. What gamer wouldn’t want that sound? From some corners it is called cold, monotonous or flat, but . More or less, an ideal. Fantasy is someone else’s thing, but in terms of rhythm, no one today is like him, a hammer who walks around the Miami dance floor smoking a cigar. His last intervention lasts 1h 11m and this time Frances Tiafoe suffers it. Can you do anything else? Double 6-2.
It doesn’t matter that the local player (28 years old and 20th in the world) seems to be getting into shape and recovering his good version after hibernation. The Italian (24th and 2nd) tackles him, hooks him and doesn’t let go. Mr. shaking. Another one. Recent champion in Indian Wells, things would have to go awry so that this Sunday the transalpine does not achieve a historic double on this March tour that would tie him in with the eleven who have achieved it before, between men and women; The last to achieve this (2022) was the Polish Iga Swiatek, now in the doldrums, and in the men’s field she carried the signature of a certain Roger Federer, thanks to .
Sinner adds and continues, once again incontestable, very firm, executor. The local Alex Michelsen demanded him in the previous round, surrendered after a well-resolved double tiebreaker, but the rest was little less than a pleasant parade of authority on his part. Again, a recital of mobility, service and shooting, and Tiafoe wondering all the time what the hell he can do to stop such an avalanche: probably, nothing. In 21 minutes he has already conceded a couple of breaks and in 31 he delivered the first set, in which Sinner has broken 16 winners and has only conceded four points with serve. From there, more coal to the boiler and another semifinals in Florida, the fourth ones they have reached.
Sinner was crowned two years ago —— and last year he could not compete due to the sanction that weighed on him for the clostebol case. He returns strong and ready to make amends, absolute dominator lately within the framework of the Masters 1000. There are already 15 wins in a row in the category – he opened the series in the autumn event in Paris – and a series of 30 sets without error. Squeeze and want more. He started the year in a zigzag way – semi-finals in Australia and quarter-finals in Doha – but under the American sun he has regained his best color and the progression places him in a situation that was not expected so long ago, since the debate for number one is intensifying.
Although Carlos Alcaraz still has an income of 1,790 points, the Spaniard will defend 1,000 at the opening of the tour on clay, in Monte Carlo; exactly the same figure that he will aspire to, absent in 2025 from February to May, until his punishment ended and he reappeared at the Foro Italico in Rome. In any case, the possibility of sitting on the throne again does not seem to keep him awake, but rather finding new antidotes – technical and tactical – that allow him to balance the pulse with the Murcian. Curiously, at this point in the year they have not faced each other yet, since the Italian then slipped in Doha and then Alcaraz ran into a great Medvedev in Indian Wells, in addition to the bad day in Miami.
Without Alcaraz on the scene, Sinner is just two steps away from completing the Sunshine Doublealthough his words are not accompanied by the gesture: Relax, is relaxation possible for him? “Mentally you have to stay calm and be relaxed off the court as well, since I have played a lot of tennis over the last three or four weeks, with training and everything else… I try to keep going. I know that this is my last hard court tournament before moving on to clay, so I am very happy to have made it this far,” he says goodbye. He faces Alexander Zverev or Francisco Cerúndolo this Friday (not before 00:00, Movistar+). The other match (20.00) will be between the Frenchman Arthur Fils and the Czech Jiri Lehecka.
GAUFF APEA TO SWIATEC ON THE POOD
A. C.
These are not good times for Iga Swiatek, recently relegated to third place by Elena Rybakina and now, to fourth by Coco Gauff. The 22-year-old American beat Karolina Muchova this Thursday (double 6-1, in 1h 29m) and, with her access to the final, ousts the Pole.
It is the first time that Gauff has reached the final episode of the tournament and history highlights that there has not been such a young local finalist in the tournament since Serena Williams in 2003. Muchova was only able to convert one of the eight break options available to her.
Now, Gauff awaits the second classified, between one and two: Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina, mentioned this morning (1.30, Tennis Channel) after the recent fight for the title in Indian Wells, favorable to the first.
