Daniil Medvedev won his fourth title of the 2023 season but claimed Sunday's Miami Open was the biggest one yet after knocking over Jannik Sinner 7-5 6-3 in the decider.
Medvedev improved his outstanding season record to 29-3, well ahead of the next best Sinner (21-5) with the straight-sets triumph. The Russian will rise to number four in the ATP world rankings on Monday.
The Miami title comes after the 27-year-old lifted crowns in Dubai, Doha and Rotterdam and reached the Indian Wells Open final, only to lose to top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz. During that run, Medvedev has an overall record of 24-1.
Despite Medvedev's remarkable form, Miami was his first ATP Masters 1000 title since winning the Canadian Open in Toronto in 2021.
"I haven't won such a big title in probably a year and a half," Medvedev said. "At the end I was quite shaky. Not even tight, because I'm not scared to win. But still the hands get a little shaky so the serve is a little bit tougher… I managed to get myself together and close the match.
"It's the best start of the season I have ever had. Amazing amount of points won. I think 2019 was great also with six finals and it was also new for me in 2019. So I think it's kind of the same."
Medvedev triumphed in one hour and 34 minutes, although the contest was closer than the scoreline suggested, with both players hitting 27 winners and 14 unforced errors each.
The Russian was impressive on serve, winning 86 per cent of first serve points, but he also committed six double faults with nine aces.
"I'm really happy," Medvedev said. "Today was a tough match. It was probably the hottest day and the most humid during the day.
"It was not easy conditions. I don't know if Jannik had a small injury or cramp. I was also struggling, tried not to show it."
Medvedev is the first male to reach consecutive ATP 1000 finals since Novak Djokovic in 2020. The Russian's other ATP 1000 titles include Paris in 2020, Shanghai in 2019 and Cincinnati in 2019.
The 2021 US Open winner has also claimed 16 ATP tournament titles on hard courts since 2019, ahead of Djokovic (14) and Andrey Rublev (10) during that period. The ATP Tour now moves to clay courts.
"Generally I love hard courts," he said. "I love playing on it. If it would be my choice, it would be only hard courts, but I completely understand that that's not fair, if we can say like this. I feel the best at my game on hard courts."
Sinner avoids O'Connell upset at US Open
Jannik Sinner beat Australia's Christopher O'Connell in straight sets to reach the fourth round of the US Open on Saturday, avoiding a similar fate to Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
The men's draw at Flushing Meadows has been blown wide open by early exits for Alcaraz and Djokovic, but the top seed remains in the hunt after a composed performance.
He reached the fourth round for a fourth consecutive year with a routine 6-1 6-4 6-2 victory, setting the tone with several huge groundstrokes in the opening set.
O'Connell never looked likely to fight back as Sinner smashed 46 winners in a ruthless performance, wrapping up his win in one hour and 56 minutes.
The Australian Open champion will face either Tommy Paul or Gabriel Diallo for a place in the last eight, and he was relieved to survive an opening week full of surprises.
"Everything can happen in this sport, so I try to stay on my side of the net and I'm trying to take the tournament day by day," Sinner said in his on-court interview after the win.
"Each opponent is a very tough challenge and [I am] also enjoying every moment on the court. There have been already a couple of upsets, so let's see what's coming.
"But I'm very happy to still be here and hopefully I can play as many matches as possible. But as I said, we go day by day and then we'll see how it goes."
Data Debrief: Sinner heating up
Sinner lost his first set of the tournament to Mackenzie McDonald but has been largely untouchable since then.
He has only lost 18 games across his last nine sets of tennis, an average of two per set.
The Italian's winning streak now stands at seven straight matches, meanwhile, following his triumphant Cincinnati Open run.
Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Leipzig: Visitors fightback halts unbeaten streak for Alonso's side
Bayer Leverkusen suffered their first defeat in 36 Bundesliga matches, as Leipzig came from behind to stun Xabi Alonso's side 3-2 at BayArena.
Lois Openda struck twice for Marco Rose's, who recovered from 2-0 down to make it two wins from two and move to the summit of the table.
It looked like business as usual for the reigning Bundesliga champions when they scored twice in the last seven minutes of the first half through Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo.
However, Leipzig replied deep into first-half stoppage time with Kevin Kampl reducing the deficit.
Openda then brought the visitors level in the 57th minute, before a stunning long-range strike completed the turnaround 10 minutes from time, condemning Leverkusen to their first league defeat in 15 months.
Data Debrief: Leverkusen's long streak comes to a shuddering halt
Leipzig became the first side to beat Leverkusen in a Bundesliga match since Bochum achieved the feat a staggering 462 days earlier.
The visitors have begun a Bundesliga season with two wins from two for only the second time, also doing so in 2019-20.
They are also now unbeaten in 13 league matches, their longest such streak since Rose took charge.
As for Leverkusen, their invincible streak is officially history, as is their 29-game unbeaten run on home soil.
'We really let ourselves down' - Coleman slams Everton after late Bournemouth collapse
Seamus Coleman acknowledged Everton "really let ourselves down" and must "look at ourselves in the mirror" following their spectacular late collapse against Bournemouth.
Sean Dyche's side, who were seeking their first points of the season, led 2-0 in the 87th minute at Goodison Park through goals from Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
However, the hosts were undone by three crosses in the latter stages, with Antoine Semenyo pulling a goal back and Lewis Cook levelling, before Luis Sinisterra completed a sensational turnaround in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Boos rung around Goodison Park as the Toffees remained pointless and rooted to the foot of the Premier League table, and Coleman echoed the supporters' frustrations.
"We really let ourselves down in front of our fans," the skipper said. "We cannot take our foot off the gas at this level. Unfortunately, we did that.
"We cannot be conceding the goals that we did. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror."
Meanwhile, Dyche bemoaned the lack of responsibility amongst his players, as they became the first side in Premier League history to lose a game after leading by two or more goals in the 87th minute.
"We did so much right until they scored their first goal," the Everton head coach said. "The game should have been out of sight. We conceded one and then threw it away. I can't put my finger on it right now.
"They kept raining it forward and got their reward in the end. They were playing it forward and crossing it into the box, and we didn't deal with it. Simple stuff, but we threw it away. It is the third game we have thrown away this season.
"Everyone was looking at someone else to deal with things and that is when there is trouble. You could see the body language change. You have to see games through, and we have enough experience to do that, but today we didn't."
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola added: "It was the worst game we played this season. Everton deserved to win today, but the players kept pushing.
"I always have hope because this team has spirit. We have done it before and had some good comebacks. The spark of the first goal made us believe we could do it again."
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