Jannik Sinner is master of his destiny: on Sunday 31 March there is not only the final of the Miami Open at stake. There is also the third trophy to be won in this first part of 2024 (after the Australian Open Slam and the ATP 500 in Rotterdam) and, above all, second place in the world ranking, a result never achieved by an Italian tennis player. On his path he will find a ‘rejuvenated’ Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian former world number 3, now 12th in a ranking who, despite his 32 years (in May they become 33), surprisingly eliminated the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (current n. 2) and the German Alexander Zverev (n.5).
Dimitrov, who won in Brisbane (Australia) last January, interrupting a long abstinence that had lasted since the 2017 London Finals, is stuck in winning the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati in 2017: reaching the final (the third of his career of this category) already allows him to enter the Top 10. At the moment, Dimitrov is one of the fittest tennis players, with his one-handed backhand that surprises his opponents. There are three precedents with Sinner: the first match, in Rome in 2020, saw the Bulgarian celebrate in three sets; in 2023, however, Sinner won first in Miami (in the round of 32) in two sets and then in the quarterfinals in Beijing. As for the 22-year-old from South Tyrol, it is the third time in a Miami Masters 1000 final: in 2021 he was defeated by the Polish Hurkacz, last year by Medvedev. Here, but if the Sinner who will challenge Dimitrov is the one who left everyone speechless in the semi-final, starting with the Russian (liquidated in an hour and 9 minutes of play), then we just have to wait a few hours to celebrate the victory of the ‘blue number 22 (out of 23 matches) this year.