Sinner sees off Lehecka to complete Sunshine Double without dropping a set | Tennis

Jiri Lehecka entered his first Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open in the best serving form of his life. He had won every service game in the tournament, a feat already achieved by eight men at this level. The ease with which he dismissed the nine break points against him reflected his confidence.

It took two return matches for Jannik Sinner to bring the Czech back to earth. Ten minutes later, Sinner had already broken Lehecka’s unbreakable serve. As has always been the case in recent years, Sinner took the lead and refused to let go.

In a match delayed several times, it took a while for Sinner to reach his intended destination, but the Italian pulled off one of the greatest feats by beating the 21st seed 6-4, 6-4 to win the Miami Open title.

Sinner is the eighth man to win Indian Wells and Miami, known as the Sunshine Double. Sinner, world number 2, has won 34 consecutive sets at Masters level since his triumph in Paris in November. He is only the third man, after Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, to win three consecutive Masters and the first to do so without losing a set in these three triumphs.

A day after Aryna Sabalenka, the women’s No. 1, won her own title at Indian Wells by winning here, it is the fourth time a male and female player have completed the Sunshine Double in the same year.

The last few weeks have been the best of Lehecka’s career. His ability to hit the ball with devastating pace and impeccable timing has been evident for years, but it wasn’t until Miami that things started to fall into place. He reached the final thanks to a victory over sixth seed Taylor Fritz and an imperious dismantling of Arthur Fils in the semifinals.

However, regardless of how well his opponents play, Sinner represents a huge step up in terms of quality. Lehecka had already learned this the hard way. In their last meeting, a third-round match at Roland Garros last year, Sinner humiliated the Czechs, leading 6-0, 5-0 before winning 6-0, 6-1, 6-2.

This was a better performance from Lehecka. After dropping serve early, he found his rhythm behind his huge serve and forehand, limiting Sinner’s opportunities until deep in the second set. He generated a half chance while leading 4-3, 0-30 on Sinner’s serve in the second set. However, in addition to his nuclear-grade groundstrokes, movement, return of serve and innate tenacity, every time the Czech generated a half-chance, Sinner’s serve stopped him instantly.

Sinner’s dominant March seems even more remarkable considering how he started the year. His five-set Australian Open semi-final loss to Djokovic was far from ideal and he followed it up with one of his worst performances in recent years, losing in three sets to Jakub Mensík. But Sinner is not a robot, despite how some of his opponents portray him, and it’s a long season. It’s no surprise that he quickly found his rhythm.

With this result, the race for ATP number 1 is on. Sinner received a three-month doping ban last year, meaning he had no points to defend in February, March and April. These excellent recent performances put him approximately 1,500 points behind Carlos Alcaraz.

Alcaraz and Sinner continued their duopoly at the start of the season: the world number 1 won in Australia and Qatar and Sinner won the Indian Wells and Miami Open titles. Perhaps the biggest upset of the year is that three months into the new season, they still haven’t played each other.