The Men’s Final of the 2024 Miami Open will be confirmed on Friday night and two of the leading protagonists left involved play in the first semi-final as they meet once again. Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev will battle it out in a meeting that has become a rivalry after the Russian initially had all the glory.
Our Match Preview will look ahead to the clash including their route to the semi-final and their all important Head to Head as well as a prediction on how the match will be won and lost.
Jannik Sinner’s superb streak ended at the hands of one Carlos Alcaraz during Indian Wells of 19-1 stemming back to the Davis Cup last season who he could yet pass to become World No.2 in winning the title. Another caveat to this story. But albeit having a fairly simple run through in Miami against only one fellow seed so far, Sinner has only lost one set against Tallon Griekspoor.
He looked in trouble against the Dutchman, but stayed resolute and that was his only scare this tournament. Usually a mark of a champion, he had his scare at the Australian Open in the final against his next opponent Daniil Medvedev who went two sets up before handing the tie on his racquet to Sinner. But he has seen off Andrea Vavassori, Tallon Griekspoor, Christopher O’Connell and Tomas Machac this week. Usually a run like that despite being luck of the draw would ask questions, but for Sinner he has the tools to beat Medvedev so there is no concerns that facing a few lower ranked players hasn’t provided him with the tests he needs as he hasn’t needed them in recent months.
Daniil Medvedev is the current defending champion in Miami defeating Jannik Sinner in the final albeit it was his final win before the Italian was sick in a bin in Beijing and then went on an unstoppable tear against the previously unbeatable Russian.
Medvedev though has recovered well from that Australian Open disappointment. Qinwen Zheng for instance on the WTA side has not been as good since losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Australian Open, neither has the champion for good measure compared to the two men’s finalists who have continued on. He reached the semi-finals in Dubai in his first tournament back losing to Ugo Humbert who has been one of the best in the world this season before losing to another of those in Indian Wells as he was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in the final. He is into another semi-final here continuing that run over the last few tournaments of semi-final or better.
Similar to Sinner, he has perhaps had a simpler run than the otherside of the draw with Marton Fucsovics, Cameron Norrie, Dominik Koepfer and finally Nicolas Jarry being his opponents. The latter being the highest ranked and the biggest seed he has faced. But he has not lost a set in comparison to Sinner and in a week where he reached 350 ATP wins, he has proven to be a real model of consistency and that has continued this week.
He also holds a positive Head to Head record albeit this is a bit of an anomaly. Medvedev is 6-4 up but at one time was 6-0 up. He won last year in Miami and since then mainly in finals has faltered against the ever improving Italian. He lost in Beijing and Vienna back-to-back and then was defeated at the ATP Finals before his Australian Open final loss. A player who it is unsure whether he can find the tools on current form of both to beat this version of Sinner, he could be starting a hoodoo or he could improve to 7-4 this tournament. As previous nights have shown anything is very much possible.
