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The first quarter of the 2024 tennis season belonged to Jannik Sinner. He has been the best player inn the world. His record has been near unblemished as he became the first man to win three titles so far. Sinner won his third, to go along with those at the Australian Open and Rotterdam, at the Miami Open on Easter Sunday.
The Easter Bunny certainly got it right with all the eggs in one basket - Jannik Sinner's.
The 22-year-old accounted for Grigor Dimitrov in 73 minutes 6-3, 6-1 making it the most one-sided final in the tournament's four-decade history and it took his record against Dimitrov to 3-1.
Sinner was awesome for most of the tournament. At the start he had to call on a few resources to win his first match. He was adjusting to the conditions that were very different to those at Indian Wells immediately before but once he got going, he was near invincible. In the semis he accounted for defending champion Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-2 which was the Russian's most devastating loss since the Canadian final he lost to Rafa Nadal in 2019.
In addition to winning his second career Masters 1000, Jannick was bumped up to a new career high ranking of two in the world.
"No, for sure it means a lot to me, but more importantly, it was a great performance for me, especially in that semifinal and final, which for me it's more important," Sinner said. "Being No. 2, it's an amazing feeling. I never thought to come to this point. I come from a very normal family. My dad is still working, as my mom, too. For me, it's, you know, sport is one thing, and life is different.
"I'm very happy to be in this position. I'm just enjoying every moment. These are special days winning a tournament. Doesn't matter what kind of tournament, it's a special day. It means a lot to me."
One can't help but like and admire Sinner. He is just so normal and humble. He just loves what he does and is not even close to being overawed with what he has got. The guy is so down to earth and normal.
Sinner said he was not expecting the type of start to the year he's had. He has now won 22 of 23 matches in 2024 and 25 of the last 26 he has played. In fact, he said he would be lying if he said otherwise.
"I felt prepared to do well this year, because I had a great offseason, I had a great end of last year. You know, beating Novak twice for me was, you know, important, like an important result. You know, I had like really consistent weeks, you know, Beijing and Vienna, and end-of-year Finals and Davis Cup. For me I felt ready to make some great results," he said.
"For me what was important because on every tournament I went I felt like that I have a good solution to play good there. On hard court, I love to play on hard courts, which gives me this extra confidence. Now on clay is a little bit different. I feel, at least in the past years I haven't felt that good on the courts. It's gonna be interesting week also in Madrid, because Madrid is completely different than all the rest. So, I'm just trying to understand what works best for me. And that's it."
While there was disappointment for Grigor Dimitrov for losing the final, he still walks away with an immense amount of pride and approval. He will return to the world's top ten, at nine, for the first time in 260 weeks which is the third longest gap since the introduction of the computer rankings in August 1973.
"All these wins that I have been able to put back-to-back, not only not just this week, I think the past seven, eight months, that's the reason why I'm back into the top 10," Dimitrov said. "Of course, extremely happy, no doubt about that. But yeah, it starts, for me personally, starts to be even more interesting how I can make it difficult for any one of these guys.
"I think slowly but surely, I'm starting to understand that a little bit. Learning that now I think a little bit more, since I have played against so many different generations, I always feel like I had to adapt sort of or learn."
He was clear in saying that Sinner is "the best player right now in the world", and that he is playing "outstanding tennis".
It was an endorsement that came from Jannik's Australian coach Darren Cahill who was asked to rate his charge on a scale of one to ten with ten the ten, Cahill was quick to say "ten".
The doubles title was won by Australian Open champions Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna 6-7, 6-3, 10/6 over Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek.
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