Tuesday is Sinner-Kyrgios: eighth blockbuster in Miami

He had survived 8 match-points in the first two rounds of the tournament: now he has overtaken even an opponent on the verge (and beyond) of a nervous breakdown. And he did it again thanks to coldness and concentration inversely proportional to his age. For the second consecutive year Jannik Sinner hits the quarterfinals at the “Miami Open”, second ATP Masters 1000 of the season (combined with the third WTA 1000 of 2022) with a prize pool of 8,584,055 currently being played sul cemento dell’Hard Rock Stadium (the “home” of the Miami Dolphins of NFL football), in Florida.

In the second round the 20 year old from Sesto Pusteria, n.11 of the ranking and 9 of the seeding, finalist last year (stopped by Hurkacz), defeated 76 (3) 63, in an hour and 39 minutes of the gameAustralian Nick Kyrgios, on the scoreboard thanks to a wild card, a victim of himself even before the blue. The 26-year-old from Canberra looked really great in this “Sunshine Double”, with the two Masters 1000s back-to-back on US hardcourt. In Indian Wells he had surrendered only to Nadal in the quarterfinals (and so far he had made a clear path): in Miami he had lined up the French Mannarino (# 61 ATP), the Russian Rublev (# 7 in the ranking and 5 in the seeding ) – who had collected the misery of three games – and Fognini (34 in the ranking and 31 in the seeding), also in this case without losing a set.

No match point saves needed today ??

An unfazed @janniksin navigates through Kyrgios 7-6(3) 6-3 to reach the Miami quarter-finals#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/ubdvfKDmKt

– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 29, 2022

It was the first confrontation between the two: they should have met a couple of weeks ago, also in the second round, in Indian Wells but the match was missed due to the blue forfeit due to the flu. Kyrgios immediately started complaining about the Grandstand. Yet the first ball-break was just the acrobatic “aussie” in the third game but his backhand was printed on the net: he had another in the fifth game but the South Tyrolean was saved again.

In the eighth game it was Jannik who had two break points canceled, the first with a drop-shot and the second with a robust serve (4-4) by a Kyrgios who was increasingly nervous and clearly dissatisfied with the field. Such a balanced set could only end in the tie-break: the Australian, prey to a self-destructive loop, went down 4-1 and 5-2. At 5-3 Nick also remedied a “penalty point” for the continuous protests and then completed the work with the second double fault that allowed Sinner to close for 7 points to 3.

The 26-year-old from Canberra continued to argue with chair judge Carlos Bernardes, smashed his racket and took a “penalty game”, starting a break below in the second set, which at the beginning also saw the attempted invasion of field by an Australian fan, blocked by security. Jannik did not let himself be distracted by what was happening around him and confirmed the advantage (2-0).

Kyrgios’ nervousness subsided just a little while Sinner kept exemplary calm and cool. The eighth, which the 20-year-old from Sesto Pusteria took home thanks to three aces, was the only slightly complicated game for the blue. In the next game, however, after two missed chances by the Australian to close the gap, Jannik reached the match point and at the end of a full-arm exchange Kyrgios sent the right into the corridor (6-3).