There will be no Sunshine Double for Carlos Alcaraz and no rematch of the Indian Wells final in Sunday’s Miami Open championship match.
Despite Alcaraz getting upset in the Miami semis, a blockbuster matchup is still in the cards for Miami’s grand finale. Daniil Medvedev is set for his fifth final in his last five tournaments and he will be going up against a red-hot Jannik Sinner. Medvedev is sweeping the head-to-head series 5-0, but Sinner has never played better than he is right now and nowhere is he more dangerous than at this particular tournament.
These two finalists just faced each other in the Rotterdam title match, with Medvedev prevailing 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. They also played a thriller at the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals, where the Russian survived 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-6(8). So even though Sinner is winless, he knows he can win.
Although conditions are also good for Medvedev, Miami probably gives Sinner his best chance. The world No. 11 is 13-2 lifetime at this Masters 1000 event, 13-1 if you don’t count a retirement, and he also reached the final in 2021 (lost to Hubert Hurkacz). Sinner is back within one win of the title following victories this fortnight over Laslo Djere, Grigor Dimitrov, Andrey Rublev, Emil Ruusuvuori, and Alcaraz. Nobody even managed to get more than four games in any set against the 21-year-old prior to Friday’s 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 upset of the top-ranked Spaniard.
Medvedev endured a bit of a roller-coaster ride on his way to the final in the slow conditions of Indian Wells before getting crushed by Alcaraz, but it has been much smoother sailing in Miami. The former world No. 1 got a walkover from Alex Molcan and also rolled through his first three matches in straight sets, after which he scraped past countryman Karen Khachanov 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 in the semis.
As good as Medvedev has been in 2023, Sinner is an amazing 21-4 and already has one title to his credit in Montpellier. He came close to a second one in Rotterdam.
Simply getting close against Medvedev is no longer acceptable in Sinner’s mind. In these fast conditions at what is quickly becoming his favorite stop on tour, the Italian’s offense may be too much for Medvedev’s defense.
Pick: Sinner in 3
Medvedev vs. Sinner expert picks
[yop_poll id=”103″]
WWW?
Wow.
Toss-up.
I’ll flip a coin & say DM.
I think sinner in three . He likes the conditions and always does well here.
Sinner in 3
So weird. Everybody is voting with their heart just because Sinner beat Alcaraz. Alcaraz is more erratic. I seriously doubt he would beat Medvedev.
Right
Correct
Medvedev is getting this one…and I like Sinner a lot.
This type of court (speed and lower bounce) suits Medvedev as much as it suits Sinner, but Medvedev is far better counterpuncher with a huge wingspan to retrieve everything.
Beating Alcaraz is not measure to judge that he can beat Medvedev too, he should have beaten Alcaraz at USO last year too, he rather lost that match than Alcaraz won it.
I forgot to add, Sinner should have finished Spaniard in two, he gifted Spaniard first set.
This match in unpredictable. I would say Sinner in three, just because he is in great form right now.
it’s time Sinner beat Medvedev.
I’m not so sure about that. I think Medvedev will be hard to beat and incredibly motivated after what happened at IW. He will see Sinner as a lesser threat than Alcaraz because Sinner doesn’t have nearly as effective a drop shot, nor does he hit it as often. The drop shot is Medvedev’s version of kryptonite.
Medvedev just beat a fellow Russian that was in very good form; I expect him to leave nothing out there. Sinner will have to play one of the best matches of his short career.
Thank God for that! Maybe Sinner will relax a bit now and play with more confidence.
Wasn’t even close, Medvedev keeps clean sheet against Sinner.
Well.that was a damp squib. Yes Sinner was physically impeded but he was off mentally I thought and really lacked self belief against Med.
I do love Med’s comments. ‘ real hard court’ &tc. Not sure Sinner appreciated them though. There’s always a lot of sarcasm with Med when you’re not clear whether he’s having a covert dig.
He’s a fantastic linguist. His French is amazing as well.
Yes, he is a clever guy, that Daniil Medvedev.
Congratulations to Big Al, you won the ATP bracket for Miami ATP, and Congrats to me; I won the Miami WTA bracket, even in Moo’s blog too. WOW, overall winner in a week that no one guessed Kvitova would win!
.
Hey amy, are you going to join the weekly bracket challenge? You would be good at both. Brackets are still open for WTA Charleston, Bogota, ATP Estoril, Houston, and Marrakech.
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com
And choose Jalep_Wildguess group
Well done RC. It was your backing of Petra . I read she doesnt like the humidity and Med doesnt like the heat in Miami so shows something .
Yeah thanks, I happy, winning the Sunshine Double in the mens.
This is one of my favourite weeks of the whole year,the start of the clay season and the Masters Golf.
I think you aren’t factoring the time difference between me and you Elizabeth! I last looked at this thread around 10.45 my time and your comment wasn’t there then. I very rarely look at this site later than 10.30/ 10.45….
You are right, amy. I will try to remember that you, Margot, and Big Al are 7 hours ahead of me.
Sleep well 😀
Medvedev is a bad matchup for Sinner. You need to be able to make Medvedev move out of his comfort zone to beat him.
Federer could do it it’s ease. Alcaraz can do it. Tsitsipas can sort of do it.
In a few years, Sinner will probably be able to do it.
Or should I say, Alcaraz can do it when the roulette wheel is paying.
Djokovic can do it when he’s hitting his drop shot well.
Interesting comparison, but let’s have a closer look at them and how legit they are, we’ll take head to head and time frame they’re achieved:
Federer vs Medvedev 3:0 (2018/19)
Alcaraz vs Medvedev 1:1 (2021/2023)
Tsitsipas vs Medvedev 4:7 (2018-2022)
Djokovic vs Medvedev 9:5 (2017-2023)
In order to make objective conclusion you need a sample of around 10 matches, give and take.
Federer was beating Medvedev with “ease” in 2018/19 when he won 3GS and returned to #1 while Medvedev was still young and working his way up the rankings, is that legit comparison, I don’t think so.
Next one is even less legit only two matches, Medvedev trashed Alcraraz at Wimbledon and Spaniard returned the favour in IW, you can’t really say that either has upper hands or knows how to beat the other one.
We are coming to only two legit comparisons:
Tsitsi and Medvedev played 11 matches and obviously Medvedev is better one and that in the time frame of 4 years.
Last but not least, Djokovic was mentioned like someone who is hardly managing to beat Medvedev when in fact he has beaten him 9 times and lost 5 times and that in the time frame of 6 years.
Funny enough you omitted to mention the player whose h2h is 5:1, who obviously has Medvedev number, particularly since all 5 wins are on the hard court, can you imagine h2h if they met on clay?!
You are guessing right, I am talking about Nadal.
Anyone that understands the game knows that Federer would be a bad matchup for Medvedev and that those results are very indicative of a larger sample size.
I’m just curious also, what nationality is Wog Boy and where are you located? Maybe we can sort out this issue we have in person?
With your permission and my permission, we can sort this out in person.
What do you reckon?
You can tell me im a wog boy to my face like the big man you are and we will see how that goes down…
Interesting also that Federer beat Rafa so many times on non clay surfaces in the latter years.
Federer was 4:0 agains Djokovic at the start of their rivalry, let’s paraphrase this and follow the same logic, just change the player:
“Anyone that understands the game knows that Federer would be a bad matchup for Djokovic and that those results are very indicative of a larger sample size.”
Hmm, wait, how that rivalry ended up and who was bad match up for who?!😉
PS
No bad feelings, but I don’t think you are the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Theres plenty of bad feelings. If you ever get the courage to sort this out in person, let me know.
In Australia, low class people are referred to as lowies, and there’s a common saying that if you associate with lowies, you get treated like a lowie.
I reckon that statement holds as true today as it ever has.
And you only have to watch the court cases in the US to see what a lot of you people are like. There’s something not right in your head.
And your head .