TO TennisMania Special Miami Opena daily event hosted by Dario Puppo on the OA Sport YouTube channelthe Eurosport journalist commented the outcome of the first quarter-finals which saw the successes of Jannik Sinner and the Russian Daniil Medvedevwho will clash tomorrow in semi-finalin the revenge of final of the last editionwon by the Russian.
On the Sinner’s victory: “I believe that there is a sort of misinterpretation of his tournament, and that a lot of focus is placed on the start of Jannik Sinner’s matches. It’s true, there is a tendency on the one hand, that of losing the first tour of duty. It happened this time too. This time he wasn’t the first to serve. He made the break and then there was the counterbreak. And certainly, in Machac’s case, he didn’t know him, even though I understood that they trained once together. Then whether they warmed up in the nearby field, this is relatively important, let’s say“.
The comparison with other 2024 tournaments: “What I want to say about Sinner is that it seems to me that he himself is a bit cautious at the beginning of the matches. Unlike the matches in Australia, in Melbourne, where actually before playing the final he could, in quotes, set the record for a tournament like the one he won by giving up serve very few times, then he gave it up several times to Medvedev and therefore that speech he failed, with Djokovic he hadn’t conceded even a break point, but there he was certainly the best Sinner that we have seen in this 2024. He also found opponents, however, in terms of ranking, a little more accessible than those of the tournament of Indian Wells, even the Rotterdam tournament, in terms of difficulty, let’s say, can perhaps be superior to the first four rounds played in Miami, but what I’m seeing is that ability, precisely that the situation of the field, balls, let’s say the humidity of Miami , playing during the day, above all, allows him to get things done. Yesterday we saw him break through more with his forehand, especially in the second set, than in other matches“.
THE strengths shown by number 2 of seeding: “I had noticed with O’Connell that even in the second set he lost the first point on his serve and the penultimate, Sinner, but by making a series of 19 points on his serve, and looking at the final five games of his matches here in Miami, it is honestly devastating. Even yesterday he conceded three to Machac, in the previous rounds a few more, without ever granting break points in those five final games on his serve. That is, I repeat, the level of players is perhaps below the average it has had in all the other tournaments played in 2024, but in my opinion Sinner has, so to speak, approached this tournament in this way, because he didn’t have a great time between Indian Wells and Miami, like other players, then he didn’t say it, he said ‘Yes, I’m not at my best yet’, but he didn’t explain what he had and it’s also safe for him not to, because I don’t want to look for excuses, because it’s difficult for such strong players to go onto the field in the morning saying ‘How good I feel’, no, because it’s a professional, hard sport, and therefore involves knowing how to overcome those small problems that may or may not you have pain every day, even during training days, but especially when you play“.
The opponent beaten yesterday by Sinner, the Czech Tomas Machac: “Machac is like that, he’s someone who tries to surprise you, and on the backhand side he has the best acceleration, the most effective one. However, straight away he is able to surprise you. Have you seen, on some backhand diagonals, Machac manage to get the better of Sinner? He’s an equipped player, but at that level you have to be, because otherwise you can’t reach the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 tournament. In my opinion, Machac’s problem is his serve, that is, to be competitive at that level you have to achieve something more from the service. Another aspect in which Machac is very good is the return, especially in the first set he showed it“.
There challenge with Medvedev: “It’s the re-edition of last year’s final, so the conditions are very similar, if not identical. In my opinion, if you look at the history, apart from Cerundolo, when he had blistering problems, in any case Sinner in this tournament, I repeat, in addition to the indoor season, beyond the fact that he won the Australian Open, but before this season if you had to think where he could do well it was indoors, Wimbledon and Miami. I give Sinner a slight favourite, and not being a coach I watched the highlights and saw something different about Medvedev. I would expect the same start seen with Jarry, a little different from the usual Medvedev, in which he tried, I don’t know if it was precisely against this specific player, not to give too much weight to the ball right from the return. He was behind, he played balls high over the net and deep, and these choices by Medvedev put Jarry, who is a different player from Sinner, in a bit of a crisis, trying to raise the trajectory, trying to lower it, trying to slow down a bit. ‘ at Simon, because that is the game used by Gilles Simon, who has been Medvedev’s new consultant for a few months. In my opinion, Medvedev has already studied the strategy, I don’t know if it will be exactly this, I think he will also have to be good at making some serves and volleys, coming forward, but he won’t play like he did in Australia, he won’t try to surprise him like this, because he wouldn’t have sense. He is a chess master, a strategy that didn’t work there is useless for him to put into practice now. Then it may be that he could also change his face in the match, I remember it, he did it with Nadal in the 2019 US Open final, when, two sets down, he began to go full speed ahead despite not being a great player at the flight“.
