Tiafoe will surely take that trade-off. If you want to win a big title, you have to go through Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz at some point. This match also continues a theme of this tournament: Improving Americans putting their games to the test against the world’s No. 1 and 2. Seb Korda did it against Alcaraz, and came away a winner. Alex Michelsen did it against Sinner, and nearly won a set. Tiafoe should take heart from both of those results.
Of course, he’ll need to do more than that. Sinner leads their head to head 4-1, and he won their last match, in the 2024 Cincy final, 7-6, 6-2. Since the start of Indian Wells, he has won all nine of his matches in straight sets.
But it’s hard to know what to make of his 7-5, 7-6 (4) win over Michelsen. On the minus side for Sinner, the American broke his serve and took over the match for much of the second set. On the plus side, Sinner kept his cool and was perfect when he had to be, in the second-set tiebreaker.
Tiafoe has been solid and resilient, and less flashy than usual, in Miami. He saved 10 of 13 break points in his last two matches, and kept his winner and error counts low. That may not be a bad place to start against Sinner. In the Indian Wells final two weeks ago, Daniil Medvedev stayed consistent, didn’t try many angles, and fought Sinner to a near-draw from the baseline.
Tiafoe obviously isn’t Medvedev. What will be interesting will be finding out what this newly committed version of himself can be. Winner: Sinner
