{"id":553761,"date":"2026-03-30T07:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553761\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:11:07","slug":"miami-open-jannik-sinner-wins-title-to-keep-pressure-on-carlos-alcaraz-in-world-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553761\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Open: Jannik Sinner wins title to keep pressure on Carlos Alcaraz in world rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sinner lost to his Spanish rival in September’s US Open final, he candidly talked<\/a> about needing to bring more variety and unpredictability to the court.<\/p>\n

But since falling to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals, and then Jakub Mensik in Doha, Sinner’s success has come down to the improved reliability of his service game.<\/p>\n

Metronomic precision with his opening shot laid the platform for his Miami victory.<\/p>\n

Hitting 70 aces over six matches was the highest tally of his career in a three-set tournament. Only once did he drop a service game.<\/p>\n

Against Lehecka, Sinner won 92% of his first-serve points. How he overcame his only moment of real peril underlined the effectiveness of his serve.<\/p>\n

Trailing 0-40 and facing three break points when 2-1 up in the first set, Sinner pulled out five inch-perfect first serves which Lehecka could barely get a string on.<\/p>\n

It was reminiscent of Roger Federer at his best, able to relieve pressure and deflate opponents by serving his way out of trouble.<\/p>\n

No wonder some have claimed Sinner has entered his ‘servebot’ era.<\/p>\n

That is not the only area where he is looking to make improvements, though.<\/p>\n

Sinner was described as “one of the best ball strikers the game has ever seen” by Miami quarter-final opponent Frances Tiafoe – yet is still looking to increase aggression with his forehand.<\/p>\n

That might seem ridiculous given the power and precision which Sinner already possesses from that wing.<\/p>\n

As Sinner looked to secure the opening set against Lehecka, he twice dispatched first serves from the Czech with crushing cross-court forehands.<\/p>\n

It was proof of Sinner’s desire to put his foot down at the right time and sent a clear message to his rivals.<\/p>\n

“The guy has zero weakness – that’s why he has won so much,” said 2013 Wimbledon women’s champion Marion Bartoli, analysing the final for Sky Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sinner lost to his Spanish rival in September’s US Open final, he candidly talked about needing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-553761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}