Daniil Medvedev claimed his maiden Miami Open title with a comprehensive 7-5 6-3 victory over Italian Jannik Sinner at Hard Rock Stadium.
Sunday marked the Russian’s fourth trophy and fifth final in as many tournaments after losing to ATP number one-ranked Carlos Alcaraz two weeks ago at Indian Wells.
The win pulled leader Medvedev 600 points ahead of Novak Djokovic in the battle to be crowned year-end ATP number one, and made it 19 titles in 19 different cities for the 27-year-old.
“On a hard court? Where have I not [won]?” Medvedev said on Amazon Prime when asked where his next victory would be. “Clay season coming, so hopefully I can do well there and maybe get my first title on clay, you never know.
“I think I’m only going to play the best tournaments like Barcelona, Madrid, so if I managed to get a title there I would be really happy. The thing is that I would like to defend my title, I haven’t done it yet. I haven’t done it at any tournament two times, so hopefully I can do it at least once in my career, but in general I always try to do my best and I’m really happy to win here today.”
Medvedev became the first man since Djokovic in 2020 to reach consecutive ATP Masters 1000 finals when he reached the title contest in Miami, the victory also his fifth ATP Masters 1000 crown and first since Toronto in 2021.
Tenth-seed Sinner was the first to break his opponent as he pulled ahead 3-2 in the opening set but Medvedev, seeded fourth, broke back immediately, then again on the hour mark to seal the set.
He could sense his opponent – who beat Alcaraz in the semi-final – had begun to fade, and the Italian was only able to break the Russian’s serve once before Medvedev won the ninth game at love to wrap up the second set in a tidy 34 minutes.
Medvedev, who will move up to number four in the ATP rankings on Monday, praised his opponent, adding: “Today Jannik was a little bit struggling and I could feel it. On the first set it was tough for me also. It was pretty hard. We had some tough rallies, so I started to feel tough and then I looked at him and thought he might not be feeling better than me.
“That’s when I actually felt much better straightaway. I think I was more consistent than he was.”
