As the tournament went on, I felt better and better – Jannik Sinner after winning Miami Open title

Jannik Sinner was delighted after beating Grigor Dimitrov by 6-3, 6-1 to win the Miami Open title. The Italian registered his first trophy at the hard-court event and his second ATP Masters 1000 crown overall.

Sinner broke the Bulgarian’s serve in the fifth game of the opening set and then had two more break points in the seventh game. However, Dimitrov was able to save them before Sinner served out of the first set.

Sinner was more dominant in the second set as he wrapped up the game in one hour and 14 minutes. The 22-year-old said he grew in confidence as the tournament progressed.

“I’m really proud obviously about the result,” Sinner said. “I started off struggling a little bit this week. I haven’t had so much time to adapt on this court, so I knew in the beginning that it’s going to be tough. As the tournament went on, I felt better and better. Today’s performance was really, really good. I’m just proud how I handled the situation. It was not easy, so it was a very, very good two weeks.”

With this win, Sinner also moved to second place in the PIF ATP rankings. The youngster has won 25 out of his last 26 games but wants to keep his feet on the ground and keep improving.

“Staying in the present moment. What it has been, it has been. I just try to improve… And also enjoying the moment. This is a special moment,” Sinner said. “You never know if this is the last time or not. So you have to enjoy this for one day, and now a new chapter is coming, clay-court [season] is coming, so completely different. Let’s see how I will play from now on. But for sure, the hard-court season until now has been very good.”

On the other hand, Grigor Dimitrov lifted himself to the ninth place in the latest ATP rankings after his final run at the Miami Open.