Jannik Sinner is a man on a mission—a fine-tuned winning machine and a cold-blooded tennis assassin. The 24-year-old Italian is all of those things and much, much more, and on Sunday he’ll bid to add “Sunshine Double winner” to his growing list of accomplishments.
The Italian battled past Alexander Zverev on Friday night inside Hard Rock Stadium, weathering every punch the hard-hitting German could throw and responding in kind as a tight second set came down to the wire. Sinner’s 6-3, 7-6(4) victory marks his 16th consecutive straight-set win at the Masters 1000 level, his 11th consecutive win in Miami (dating back to his 2024 title), and his 11th consecutive win overall.
Wait, there’s more. Sinner has now won seven straight matches against Zverev, thanks in part to a 15-ace performance that wasn’t always perfect, but certainly hit the high notes.
Sinner advances to his fourth Miami Open final, where he will face Jiri Lehecka, who defeated Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-2 earlier on Friday.
The Italian joins Andy Murray and Pete Sampras on the all-time Miami Open finals list, now tied for fifth with four appearances, behind only Andre Agassi (8), Novak Djokovic (8), Rafael Nadal (5) and Roger Federer (5).
He’s just 24—give the kid time.
Sinner reached his 35th tour-level final (25-9) and became the eighth man in Masters history to reach 10 ATP Masters 1000 finals on hard courts.
Zverev deserves credit for using his newfound aggressiveness to make the contest competitive. It could be argued that he had the faster start, but he still found himself trailing by a break after Sinner capitalized early to lead 3-1. It was all the four-time major champion needed to take the set.
The second set was tighter—and more entertaining—and Zverev had his chances. He’ll rue a few misses, including a backhand into the net on break point at 3-4, and a costly overhead miss in the tiebreak that gave Sinner a 5-3 lead and effectively sealed the match.
Sinner raised his level on serve in the tiebreak, but Zverev might well have ended the Italian’s streak of consecutive sets won had he converted his opportunities—he was playing that well.
In the end, it was another tough loss for Zverev to swallow. The German has yet to reach a final in 2026, with losses to Carlos Alcaraz (Australian Open, Indian Wells) and Sinner halting his progress.
Sinner, meanwhile, has only himself to credit for his purple patch. He has rebounded strongly from a start to the season that didn’t meet his own lofty expectations and is now in position to become the first man to complete the Sunshine Double since Roger Federer in 2017.