Sinner surpasses Djokovic to become sole historical leader, defending champion Menshik misses match point and exits.

On March 23 local time, the 2026 ATP1000 Miami Masters unfolded the third round of the lower bracket, with the men's singles top 16 lineup finalized. Second seed Sinner swept past 30th seed Mutai 6-1/6-4, powerfully advancing to the next round. Sinner has already achieved back-to-back championships in the past two Masters tournaments, and currently he is only three victories away from accomplishing the "Sunshine Double" achievement. After this match, his consecutive winning streak in ATP1000 Masters tournaments since last year's Paris has reached 26 sets, surpassing Djokovic's 24 sets, making him the sole historical leader. Regarding this, Sinner stated: "I am extremely happy; tennis is full of variables, I will try to stay focused as much as possible and see what happens in the next round." Sinner's quarter-final opponent is local young player Mikkelsen, who reversed Chilean player Tabillo 3-6/6-3/6-4 to advance, becoming one of the five American local players in the top 16 lineup.

Sinner

The men's singles defending champion Menshik battled for 2 hours and 51 minutes, missing two match points in the decisive set tie-break and narrowly losing 6-7(4)/6-4/6-7(11) to 19th seed Tiafoe, thus ending his defending journey. Menshik last year successively eliminated top 10 players Draper, Fritz, and Djokovic, winning his first Masters tournament championship in his career. During his championship path, his tie-break record was 7 wins and 0 losses, but this year he exited dramatically by losing two tie-breaks consecutively, which is lamentable. After losing 950 ranking points, Menshik's immediate ranking dropped to No.26, also confirming that he will fall out of the TOP20 for the first time since last May in the new world rankings.

“I am truly thrilled; I put in a lot of effort to win such a match, maintaining high-level tennis even after three hours of battle. He was exhausted, and I was too. This is the kind of match where even if you fall behind, it's hard to say anyone truly lost today.” Tiafoe said after the match. Next, he will compete against French player Atmana for a quarter-final spot; Atmana caused an upset in this round, battling three sets to eliminate 7th seed Aliassime 6-3/1-6/6-3.

Zverev

Ninth seed Medvedev, who achieved runner-up at Indian Wells last week, also suffered elimination; his opponent F. Serendolo advanced to the top 16 at this tournament for two consecutive years. In the first set, Medvedev resisted only 21 minutes and lost six consecutive games, swallowing a bagel; although he reversed a disadvantageous situation of being broken first in the second set to take back a set, he ultimately lost 0-6/6-4/5-7. The next opponent facing F. Serendolo is 31st seed Humbert, who defeated Shevchenko 6-4/7-6(2).

Third seed Zverev engaged in a tough three-set battle in a strong dialogue with former US Open champion Cilic, finally narrowly winning 6-2/5-7/6-4, expanding their head-to-head record to 8 wins and 1 loss. Zverev will compete against French player Aris for a quarter-final spot; Aris defeated Polish player Mezhak 7-6(4)/6-1.

Miami men's singles top 16 matchups

[32] Korda vs [Q] Landalus

[21] Lehecka vs [6] Fritz

[29] Echeverri vs [22] Paul

[24] Vashero vs [28] Fils

[31] Humbert vs [18] F. Serendolo

Aris vs [3] Zverev

Atmana vs [19] Tiafoe

Mikkelsen vs [2] Sinner

March 25 schedule

On March 25, all men's singles fourth round matches and women's singles lower bracket quarter-finals will take place successively. The center court day session will commence with Fritz versus Lehecka, followed by Mboko versus Muhova, with Sinner versus Mikkelsen being the last match. The night session two matches will feature Gauff versus Bencich and Zverev versus Aris.

(Text, editing: Dato, image: Visual China)