Jannik Sinner kickstarted his quest for the Sunshine Double in emphatic fashion, beating Damir Džumhur comprehensively in Miami.
It marked the continuation of his fine form on the hard courts, emphasised by the Indian Wells title he claimed last week.
The former world number one strolled to the trophy in all honesty, facing very little competition throughout.
However, arguably his toughest test came earlier on, as Joao Fonseca took him to two tiebreaks.
Jannik Sinner given advice after Joao Fonseca comments
Discussing that match, and the Brazilian’s recent encounter with Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old sensation has swiftly become one of tennis’ most talked-about individuals.
Especially with his recent comments, after Fonseca compared Alcaraz to Sinner, sparking plenty of debate amongst fans.
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Danielle Collins, speaking on Tennis Channel, offered her verdict on these claims, insisting: “Well, I think he’s right.”
She continued: “I think Alcaraz certainly has more of an arsenal, the variety in his game, the touch. He can really do everything. He has every shot.
“So I agree with Fonseca, and I really think it was no surprise that Alcaraz got the win, he’s the number one player in the world, right? Fonseca is still an up-and-comer. He’s still working his way up the ranks. He’s had some good momentum going. We saw him play an incredible match last night and an incredible match against Sinner in Indian Wells, but there’s some room to improve.”
Jimmy Arias was then asked to rate the Alcaraz display against Fonseca, admitting: “It was on par, for sure. Because for him, it was above par for everybody in the world, except for Alcaraz. That’s how he plays.
“Every time you watch an Alcaraz match, he takes your breath away with a couple of shots or a couple of gets. I did like the robot analogy with Sinner, because it is somewhat true that Sinner is just straight power off both wings, deep, hard, moves well. It’s very tough to break him down. He’s almost perfect.
“That was the other thing that Fonseca said. But when he plays Alcaraz, Sinner, Alcaraz does get the robot a little discombobulated with some highballs, with some drop shots, with some slices, and that’s the part of the game, I feel that Sinner needs to keep working on.”
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Collins and Arias were not finished there though, briefly turning their attention to Fonseca.
Having begun by offering Jannik Sinner advice, they then provided the teenage superstar with some as well.
Collins began by claiming: “Well, Fonseca certainly has the power in his game.
“I mean, we went over it yesterday. He’s hitting his forehand somewhere between two to four miles an hour faster than all the rest of the guys on tour. That’s a good sign for this young up-and-comer.
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“But the biggest thing is he’s probably going to have to start working on adding a little bit of variety into his game. You can’t just play with power, especially on the men’s side.”
Arias then interjected to add: “And movement. The movement part is not quite at the level of movement that those top couple of guys are. You’ve got to be able to defend a little bit better. He’s an offensive player, but when you play an Alcaraz, you’re going to be forced to defend some.”
This comes just after Alcaraz praised Fonseca’s game following their match, predicting a bright future for the youngster.
