Jannik Sinner has insisted that some statistics about his career are ‘not relevant’ after setting a new benchmark for men’s tennis at the Miami Open.
The world No.2 is through to the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 event after beating America’s Alex Michelsen 7-5, 7-6(4), on Tuesday. Sinner has now won 26 consecutive sets at Masters 1000 events, which is a new record for the series. The previous record was held for a decade by Novak Djokovic, who won 24 in a row.
Sinner is no stranger to breaking records, especially for Italian tennis. He is already the first man from his country to reach No.1 in the ATP rankings, win Grand Slam titles on multiple surfaces and win the year-end finals. Despite all these achievements, the 24-year-old has played down the importance of some of them.
“I think it’s nice to know,” Sinner said of being informed about the various records he has broken.
“I play for myself. I’m obviously very happy to be in the position I am. I know how much I sacrifice, and from the life outside of tennis, to be the best possible version of myself, and that’s it.
“Some of the stats are just not relevant. Winning sets doesn’t mean anything. You need to win the match.
“They’re always going to come up with some records from the past.
“But I try to do my thing.”
In Miami specifically, Sinner has now reached at least the quarter-final stage in all of his first five appearances at the event. To put that into perspective, the only other players to achieve this are Yannick Noah and Stefan Edberg. So what is the key to Sinner performing so well at the event?
“There is a lot of breeze in wintertime. So playing here (in Miami) is slightly easier because it blocks a bit,” he explains.
“But the ball is bouncing quite low, which usually helps me. This year I’m finding it a little bit more difficult for some reasons.
“I’m also trying to enjoy whatever is around, too, off the court. I think Miami has been very, very good to me in the last few years.”
Sinner, who won Indian Wells earlier this month, has a golden opportunity to close the gap on No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, who suffered a shock third round exit in Miami. At the time of the Spaniard’s defeat, there was a gap of 2140 points. However, if Sinner wins Miami, it will be cut down to 1240 points heading into the clay swing, where he has no points to defend until Rome. The Sunshine Double (winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back) hasn’t been achieved in men’s tennis since 2017, when Roger Federer accomplished it.
In his next match, Sinner will play Frances Tiafoe. He leads their head-to-head series 4-1, with his last loss to the American being in 2021.
