Sinner sweeps Tiafoe aside to reach his fourth Miami semi-final
Jannik Sinner was merciless. He broke Tiafoe four times in 6-2, 6-2, left 45 per cent of his serves unreturned and extended his Masters 1000 consecutive sets record to 30. The Sunshine Double is firmly in his sights.
Jannik Sinner, Miami 2026 | © PsNewz
Italian seed No. 2 Jannik Sinner defeated American seed No. 19 Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau on Thursday, reaching his fourth Miami semi-final and his 15th Masters 1000 semi-final overall in just over an hour of play.
The performance was as dominant as the scoreline. Sinner broke Tiafoe in the first, third, sixth and eighth games – four breaks across two sets – and left 45 per cent of his serves unreturned. It was his tenth consecutive win at this tournament and his 30th consecutive set won at Masters 1000 level, extending his own record. He has now won 32 of his last 34 matches.
Tiafoe, who had spoken before the match about making opponents suffer and earning every point, found no way in. The American’s game plan – grinding, physical, emotionally charged – required opportunities that Sinner simply never gave him. The Italian’s head-to-head lead over Tiafoe is now 5-1.
“Obviously, I knew he had very, very tough matches, long matches”, Sinner said. “I tried to be quite physical at the beginning and starting off very well it’s good in, from the mental perspective, and being slightly more aggressive with the serve. I felt like today, I was serving very well, especially in important moments. We had a very tough game on 3-2, which was very important in the second set and, yeah, I’m happy about today’s performance.”
Sinner : “I tried to play some good tennis”
The Sunshine Double bid remains firmly on track. Since 2000, only Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz had strung together 15 consecutive wins across Indian Wells and Miami in the same season. Sinner is now the fourth. He has yet to drop a set at this tournament.
“I know how it is to play under the heat and finishing a little bit later a couple of days ago. I have this in the back of my mind. But at the same time, I tried to play some good tennis, and I managed to do that. So,
I’m seeing both sides a little bit. So, it’s trying to break him very early. That helped me.”
Sinner will face the winner of the match between German seed No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Argentinian seed No. 18 Francisco Cerundolo.
Tiafoe reached the quarter-finals after beating French qualifier Terence Atmane 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, Czech seed No. 12 Jakub Mensik 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(11) and Arthur Cazaux 7-6(1), 6-1.
