Jannik Sinner overcame Christopher O’Connell 6-4 6-3 to reach the quarter finals at the Miami Open.
O’Connell earned an early break in the first game and consolidated the break with a hold to take a 2-0 lead in the opening set. Sinner trailed 1-3 0-30, but he won four consecutive points to avoid going down a double break.
O’Connell saved a break point in the fourth and sixth games. Sinner won four consecutive games with two breaks of serve from 2-4 down to seal the first set 6-4 after 58 minutes.
Sinner earned a break in O’Connell’s first service game of the second set. Sinner held serve at love to open up a 3-0 lead. One of the spectators fainted and the match was suspended for ten minutes.
Sinner held his next two serving points and earned three match points at 40-0 when he was serving for the match. Sinner sealed the win on his third match point in the ninth game to draw level to 1-1 in his two head-to-head matches against O’Connell. Sinner dropped just two points behind his serve in the second set.
Sinner has improved his seasonal record to 19-1 including his two titles at the Australian Open and Rotterdam. He has reached the quarter final in Miami for the fourth consecutive year. He finished runner-up in two finals at this tournament to Hubert Hurkacz in 2021 and Danil Medvedev in 2023.
“He started off really well. I made a couple of mistakes. When you are a break down especially in the beginning. It’s always tough, also mentally. Today was much different than Sunday’s match. It was much more windy, so I had to adjust a little bit. I had some chances even before I broke him, so I know that I was doing the right things. I tried to serve really solid. He made a couple of mistakes in important mmoments and I think today was the key”, said Sinner.
Sinner set up a quarter final match against six-time ATP Challenger Tour champion Tomas Machac, who beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-3 6-3. Machac has moved up to number 42 in the ATP Live Ranking. The Czech player has reached the quarter final at a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time.
