Unstoppable! Rolex endorser Sinner crowns "Sunshine Double" with 12 consecutive wins

At 0:00 Beijing time on March 30, Rolex endorser and current world No. 2 Sinner defeated Czech player Lehečka 6-4/6-4 in the ATP Miami Masters men's singles final, becoming the first male player since Federer in 2017 to sweep the Sunshine Double in a single season, and he is also the first player in history to win these two tournaments without losing a single set.

Sinner clinches Miami Masters championship (Photo: Visual China)

After this match, Sinner became the eighth male player to achieve the Sunshine Double, following Courier, Chang, Sampras, Rios, Agassi, Federer, and Djokovic. Meanwhile, with Sabalenka winning the women's singles championship the previous day, this marks the fourth time in history that both male and female players have achieved the Sunshine Double in the same year (1994: Sampras, Graf; 2005: Federer, Clijsters; 2016: Djokovic, Azarenka).

“This means a lot to me. Winning the Sunshine Double for the first time is incredible,” Sinner said in the on-court interview. “I never thought I could achieve this because it’s so difficult, but we finally did it, and I’m really happy. Today’s court conditions (affected by rain) were completely different; the ball became heavy and it was hard to break through the opponent’s defense. I tried to stay steady on crucial points, and I’m glad to bring this trophy home.”

Local rainfall delayed the start of the match by 90 minutes. Once the match began, Sinner quickly applied pressure on Lehečka. The Czech player had not faced a break in his five previous matches before the final, but Sinner broke Lehečka’s serve in his second service game and maintained the lead until the end of the set, winning 6-4. In the second set, after only three points, rain returned and interrupted the match for nearly another 90 minutes.

After the match resumed, Lehečka saved five break points in the third and fifth games to hold serve, but Sinner finally secured a break in the ninth game and then won his service game to clinch the set 6-4. In this 1-hour 33-minute duel, Sinner consistently dominated in attacking exchanges. Lehečka frequently approached the net, winning 13 out of 19 net points, but still could not withstand the flawless performance of Sinner.

After securing his seventh Masters title, Sinner trails world No. 1 Alcaraz by only 1190 points in the rankings. With victories at the Australian Open and Doha, Alcaraz started this season strongly with 16 consecutive wins, while Sinner surged in March. The unstoppable Italian extended his winning streak in Masters sets to 34, improving his season record to 19 wins and 2 losses, and remained unbeaten in March with 12 consecutive wins. The battle for world No. 1 between them will intensify in the upcoming clay season.

For 24-year-old Lehečka, this was his first ATP Masters final appearance. The Czech player will rise to a career-high ranking of No. 14 this week.

In the earlier women’s doubles final, the No. 2 seeds Siniaková/Townsend defeated the No. 1 seeds Paolini/Errani 7-6(0)/6-1, also achieving the Sunshine Double this year.

（Text and editing: Wang Fei）