Connect with us

Masters Miami Open Miami Open WTA

Sabalenka steadies to beat Gauff, completes Miami title after Indian Wells run

Sabalenka steadied herself to beat Gauff in Miami, sealing back-to-back titles and personal gains in

Published

on

Aryna Sabalenka had prepared for a night like this with her team for months, and when the decisive moment arrived in Miami she met it.

She took the first set by breaking early and again in the seventh, finishing with a backhand winner on set point. Coco Gauff fought back in the second, injecting pace on returns and using heavy forehands to tilt momentum. The crowd pushed for Gauff, and the American’s recovery forced a tense third set.

Sabalenka said her team had worked through the emotional pattern that had troubled her in big finals. “We were chatting a lot, trying to dig deep and find the reason why I’m letting these finals get too much in my head, why I’m letting myself get too emotional,” Sabalenka said of her team. “Mentally we found a way to improve.”

That adjustment showed early in the third. With Gauff serving in the opening game, Sabalenka regained control by keeping pace high but away from the lines, producing a forehand and backhand winner that earned a break. From there Gauff stayed close, but Sabalenka held at love for 4-2 and again for 5-3. The match ended when Gauff committed a series of errors.

Advertisement

“I lost a couple of opportunities in that second set, but I was just trying to stay mentally positive,” Sabalenka said. “Going into the third set, I was trying to remind myself I’m strong enough to handle that.”

Sabalenka described the month as the best of her life on both personal and professional fronts. “I’m super happy to see that everything came together and worked really well for me this month.” She is 27, became engaged to Georgios Frangulis, and on court completed a rare sweep by winning Indian Wells and Miami back to back, joining Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Iga Swiatek (2022).

Sabalenka had begun her run by saving a match point to win Indian Wells against Elena Rybakina. Against Gauff, she closed out another three-set final, an example of the mental strides she and her team aimed to make.

Advertisement

ATP Italian Open Masters

Tien Enters ATP Top 20 After Rome; Jodar Joins Top 30 and Secures Roland Garros Seed

Learner Tien moves into the ATP Top 20 after Rome; Rafael Jodar cracks the Top 30 and earns a seed..

Published

on

American Learner Tien has climbed into the ATP Top 20 after reaching the fourth round in Rome. The 20-year-old Californian moved from No. 21 to No. 20 following his best Masters 1000 result on clay. That run marked the first time in his career he has won back-to-back matches on the surface.

Tien’s most notable previous results have come on hard courts, including his first ATP title in Metz last year and another ATP final in Beijing last year. His best Grand Slam showing came with a quarterfinal at the Australian Open earlier this year, and his best Masters 1000 result before Rome was a quarterfinal at Indian Wells earlier this year. He is now finding form on different surfaces and has little to defend for the remainder of the clay season or even the grass season.

On the U.S. leaderboard, Tien is the No. 3-ranked American man behind Top 10 players Ben Shelton (No. 6) and Taylor Fritz (No. 8). Frances Tiafoe (No. 21) and Tommy Paul (No. 26) round out the U.S. men’s Top 5.

Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar also made a significant leap, rising from No. 34 to No. 29 to register his Top 30 debut and clinch a seed for Roland Garros. Jodar has moved from outside the Top 100 to inside the Top 30 in this clay-court season alone. He left Miami with his Top 100 debut and went 15-3 on clay, winning his first ATP title in Marrakech, reaching the semifinals in Barcelona and posting back-to-back quarterfinals in Madrid and Rome.

Advertisement

The 19-year-old is now the highest-ranked teenager on the ATP list, narrowly ahead of fellow 19-year-old Joao Fonseca at No. 30. They are the only two teenagers in the ATP Top 100. Jodar will be making his career debut at Roland Garros next week.

Two other Rome standouts climbed the rankings: Luciano Darderi rose from No. 20 to No. 16 after reaching his biggest career semifinal, surpassing his prior career-high of No. 18 and guaranteeing a Top 16 seed for Roland Garros; and Casper Ruud jumped from No. 25 to No. 17 after reaching the final in Rome, also securing a Top 16 seed in Paris given No. 2-ranked Carlos Alcaraz and No. 11-ranked Lorenzo Musetti’s injury withdrawals.

Continue Reading

ATP Italian Open Masters

Late-match clarity: How Sinner and Svitolina closed Rome with decisive plays

Late pressure yielded clarity: Sinner and Svitolina turned tense moments into Rome titles. In Paris.

Published

on

Two finals, two defining moments. In Rome, Elina Svitolina and Jannik Sinner each wrapped long title runs with a single late-match flash that encapsulated their tournaments.

Svitolina’s decisive sequence arrived at 4-2 in the third set against Coco Gauff, as she chased an insurance break. Gauff seemed to have the point after moving Svitolina from sideline to sideline, but Svitolina scrambled, tracked down a backhand, crossed to retrieve a forehand and then crossed again to hit a backhand pass from outside the doubles alley for a winner. That same willful desperation and relentless energy powered three-set wins over No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek, No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina and, moments later, fourth-seeded Gauff. Her final, a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 victory, delivered a third Rome title, eight years after her previous one.

“It’s just the fighting spirit that I have,” Svitolina, 31, said. “I try to bring it in the important moments. Sometimes when your opponent is playing great, you need to be ready for fighting.” She credited a mid-year training block for sharpening her game: “It was important to prioritize my fitness, my kind of strength, because in such a busy schedule, don’t have so much time to train physically,” Svitolina said. “I really had a good eight days of training. Completely switched off from tennis. I think I feel more refreshed.”

Sinner’s defining moment came late in the second set of the final against Casper Ruud. Serving at 4-3, 30-30, he was under pressure but answered with a blistering forehand that turned defense into attack and finished the rally with an inside-out winner. Sinner had been tight early but produced the shotmaking that characterized his spring run of five straight Masters 1000 titles. After his 6-4, 6-4 win he reflected on the occasion: “This was the 50th year since an Italian won,” a relieved Sinner said. “There was a lot of tension on both sides, it was not perfect tennis from both of us, but I’m really happy. An incredible past two and a half months. I try to put myself in the best possible position every time and do the best I can. Not every day is simple.”

Advertisement

Sinner also acknowledged the physical toll and the team that helped him: “Physically very very tough, big thanks to my physical team, I’ve had with me all year long, trying to keep up my body,” Sinner said. “They’re as important as the tennis coaches”

Both champions converted pressure into the precise plays that won them Rome.

Continue Reading

ATP Italian Open Masters

Sinner, 24, completes Career Golden Masters with Rome victory

Jannik Sinner completed the Career Golden Masters with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Casper Ruud in Rome. 2026

Published

on

Jannik Sinner completed a rare career collection by winning the Italian Open and thereby claiming all nine Masters 1000 events. The 24-year-old defeated Casper Ruud in the Rome final, 6-4, 6-4, capturing the only Masters title that had been missing from his résumé.

Coming into 2026, Sinner already held titles at Miami, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris. Over the last few months he added the remaining tournaments on his list with wins at Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Madrid and now Rome, becoming only the second player since Masters 1000 events began in 1990 to win all nine events in a career. Novak Djokovic is the only other player to complete the Career Golden Masters, but he did so at age 31; Sinner is 24.

The Rome triumph brought additional milestones. With two Miami crowns and one title at each of the other eight Masters events, the victory in Rome was Sinner’s 10th Masters 1000 trophy, making him just the seventh player to reach double-digit titles at this level. He also became only the second player to sweep the three clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments in the same year, joining Rafael Nadal, who won Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome in 2010.

Sinner’s success carried national significance as well. He is the first Italian man to win the Rome title in 50 years; the last home champion was Adriano Panatta in 1976, a span that predates the Masters 1000 era.

Advertisement

The 6-4, 6-4 scoreline over Casper Ruud provided the conclusive result that completed a rare and significant career achievement. By closing the loop on the Masters calendar, Sinner has cemented a position among the game’s elite and added a landmark chapter to his 2026 season.

Continue Reading

Trending