He is now the best player in the world.
This sentence is getting stronger every day.
Dimitrov was obviously a little disappointed after the final, but based on the performance of the last week and a half, and even the last months, he can be rightly proud of himself. Perhaps mostly because he returned to the top 10 in the world ranking after 2018 after defeating Hubert Hurkacz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.
“I want to focus on the positives,” Dimitrov emphasized after losing the final. “A lot happened here in the background, I beat very good players, which means a lot to me.”
“I don’t want to be too hard on myself right now. Defeat obviously hurts, because no one wants to lose a final. But all in all, it’s been a great two weeks.”
The Bulgarian is one of the most popular players on the tour, so it’s no wonder that he got a lot of love from the audience on the way to the final.
“I’ve been feeling like a rock star for the past few days. I felt the love of the people, which made the days spent here even more beautiful for me.”
He is trying to gain confidence from this march before the upcoming slag season. Next time we will see him play in Monte-Carlo.
“I’m really looking forward to the slag season, but now I need a few days to reassess where I’m at and then work can continue. I’m back at a level where I can compete with the best and play well against them. Now it is clearly Sinner who is in front, he must be chased.”
“Jannik played amazing tennis, it’s impressive how high the level of his game is.”
He hits without a doubt. This is the best tennis of his life right now. How can it get any better than this? I do not know. But he is now the best player in the world.
At the same time, Dimitrov also said that Roger Federer was the biggest challenge for him on the court.
“The toughest player I played against when he was at his peak was Roger Federer. I remember once at Wimbledon I wanted to dig a hole to disappear from the world. I haven’t felt that way against anyone else.”
Sinner, who climbed to a career-high second place in the world rankings, is of course happy about his victory at the Miami Open, but he does not celebrate for long, his thoughts are already dominated by new challenges.
“When you win, you know it’s very special, but it’s only a moment. There isn’t much time to enjoy it. Of course, I give in to the feeling for a few days, but then I go back and continue working. It was in Australia, in Rotterdam, and it is still happening now. Of course, there are players who stay in this feeling a little longer.”
I’m not a party person. A good dinner, maybe some sweets, but that’s it.
The Italian is already focusing on the slag season, which is by no means his strongest cover. Of his thirteen tournament victories, he has only won one on clay, and his win-loss ratio is also below his average on this surface. In 2023, he remained on clay without a trophy, his best result was a semi-final in Monte-Carlo.
“Now comes the slag, where I usually suffer a bit. There isn’t much time to transition, I think we’ll start on that cover on Thursday. We’ll see what I can do this year. In any case, the next goal is to try to become confident on clay as well.”
“The most important is, of course, Roland Garros, but there is also Rome before that, which means a lot to me. The home crowd is always amazing.”
Jannik Sinner easily beat Grigor Dimitrov in the men’s final of the hard court tennis tournament in Miami.
Photo: Eurosport
“Overall, I’m not worried about the slag. I learned a lot last year, and physically I’m in much better shape now, that’s where I’ve improved the most. This is also important mentally, because it helps to maintain concentration for hours.”
Sinner has set new records, reached new milestones, and of course he has quite a few more to come in the coming months and years. For example, he became the first Italian to reach second place in the ATP rankings. Previously, Nicola Pietrangeli was the leader with his third place.
This was the 13th tournament victory of the 22-year-old Italian, in which he confirmed his first place in his country, previously Adriano Panatta reached 10. Sinner won his second 1000 race in Miami, having won his first trophy at this level last year in Toronto. In this, he overtook Fabio Fognini, who was able to win once in Monte-Carlo.
He is 22-1 in 23 matches this year, but it is also worth looking at the fact that since last year’s US Open he has 40 wins with only 3 losses.
Since he doesn’t have many points to defend in the clay season, he could even be world number one in a few weeks or months. The Italian defends 585 points, while Novak Djokovic has 2315, Carlos Alcaraz has 2265, and Daniil Medvedev has 1280.
