Last American Tiafoe falls to world No. 2 Sinner, who will play Zverev in semifinal

By Harvey Fialkov / Staff writer

MIAMI GARDENS – Jannik Sinner was admittedly in a rush during his post-match press conference because he wanted to watch his beloved Italy soccer team play Northern Ireland in a must-win World Cup qualifier.

That could partially explain why Sinner, the No. 2 player in the world, made quick work of Frances Tiafoe, the last American in the men’s draw, 6-2, 6-1 in a 71-minute lopsided quarterfinal on a sunny Thursday afternoon at the Miami Open.

Sinner, never too kind to American players, now has beaten the last 29 Americans he has faced since losing to Ben Shelton at the 2023 Shanghai Masters.

Sinner, 24, also continued his Masters rampage, extending his record to 30 consecutive set wins  in his last three Masters 1000s, (Paris, Indian Wells). He could make more history on Sunday if he captures his second Miami title (2024) and joins the almost exclusive club of Sunshine Double champions (Indian Wells and Miami in same year), last accomplished by legend Roger Federer in 2017.

That illustrious list also includes Andre Agassi (2001), Marcelo Rios (1998), Pete Sampras (1994), Michael Chang (1992) and Jim Courier (1991).

First things first. Sinner must deal with No. 3 Alexander Zverev, arguably the best player without a Major title, in Friday night’s semifinal, after the 6-foot-6 German won the battle of monstrous forehands against Argentine’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 6-2 in the evening quarterfinal.

Sinner is 7-4 over Zverev, who owns the most match wins in the Masters 1000 series this decade (106). However, Sinner has dominated Zverev of late, with six consecutive wins (all on hard), including 6-2, 6-4 in the semis at the recent Indian Wells event. Zverev said it took him a long time to get over his straight-set loss to Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final.

“The best player in the world on hard court for the past 2½ years,’’ Zverev said. “I have to play a perfect match to have a chance to beat him. We had a couple of close ones in the past. Also last year in Vienna we had a close match. It went his way. I hope to have a similar match to go my way.”

Zverev was referring to losing the Vienna final to Sinner 7-5 in the third set.

Zverev,15-4 this year, reached his third semifinal of 2026, and has clearly become more aggressive on his service returns (winning 70 percent of second-serve returns ).

“All in all, I put pressure on him on my serve and my returns as well,” he said. “I always try to back myself from the baseline, but I felt like I didn’t let him breathe a lot, didn’t let him get into the match.”

Zverev’s booming serve and forehand (18 winners, 7 errors) dominated Cerundolo (no break points), but the Argentine was on the defensive all night.

“We are trying to understand what’s the best game plan, trying to be in the best possible shape tomorrow, and we see how it goes,’’ Sinner said of Zverev. “It’s going to be, of course, tough but at the same time, I’m happy to play semis here.”

On Friday, flashy 21-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils — into his first Masters 1000 semifinal — will take on 21^st seed Czechian Jiri Lehecka not before 3 p.m. Fils holds a 2-1 edge, including his recent win in the Doha quarters, but Lehecka has two career Masters 1000 semifinals to his credit.

Sinner noticed that Tiafoe’s legs weren’t as fresh coming off two grueling wins over France’s Terence Atmane in three sets, and a near 3-hour battle with defending champion Jakub Mensik where he was down two match points.

“I knew he had very, very tough matches, long matches,’’ Sinner said. “I tried to be quite physical at the beginning and starting off very well it’s good from the mental perspective and being slightly more aggressive with the serve. I felt like today, I was serving very well, especially in important moments.

“We had a very tough game on 3-2, which was very important in the second set and, yeah, I’m happy about today’s performance.”

Sinner’s pinpoint serve accounted for 14 aces, while winning 83 percent of points on his first serve. He never had to save a break point and cruised through his service games. It seemed as if Tiafoe’s groundstrokes lacked depth and sat up for Sinner, who was seeing the ball as if it was a soccer ball, swatting it away for 33 winners.

Tiafoe, 28, ranked No. 20, is in the midst of a resurgent season with a recent final in Acapulco. He tried different tactics with more net rushes than usual (2-of-8), but Sinner always had the answer with a warp-speed forehand pass. Sinner, not known for his net prowess, converted 8-of-8 volley winners. Tiafoe had just seven winners and 16 unforced errors.

“Obviously, I just got to be a bit better in these matches. I’ve played some Top 5, Top 10 guys, and I haven’t played, ultimately, my best, but I’m really happy with what I’ve been doing,’’ said Tiafoe. “I mean he’s one of the best ball-strikers the game has ever seen. No excuses. The guy’s a hell of a player. He showed it against everyone.

“I wasn’t my sharpest, but he still put me in really, really, tough positions. I think the biggest thing is [I didn’t give him] any scoreboard pressure. He’s No. 1 or No. 2 in the world, whatever, like he’s a great frontrunner, and that was the biggest issue today. And getting broken early in both sets.

“The biggest thing with him, is he can do the same thing over and over again. He hits the ball super-clean with great depth, and he moves super well, right? … He serves at a high clip the majority of times, and makes the court feel pretty small with how well he moves and also hits the ball pure as day every shot. You feel like you almost got to press a little bit. Makes you feel like you got to overplay.”

As for Sinner, his day ended well as Italy downed Northern Ireland 2-nil.

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