The China Mail - Sinner and Gauff advance with ease at Miami Open

Sinner dominated 19th-seeded American Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 6-2, the four-time Grand Slam champion from Italy advancing in 71 minutes at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins.

Sinner, hoping to complete a "Sunshine Double" with March titles at Miami and Indian Wells, stretched his ATP Masters 1000 set win streak to 30, having not dropped a set at the level since last October in Shanghai.

"I started off very well, was serving very good in really important moments so that for sure helped me," Sinner said. "Very happy about today's performance."

Gauff overwhelmed Czech 13th seed Carolina Muchova 6-1, 6-1 to reach Saturday's women's final.

Gauff, the reigning French Open champion, will play for the title against the winner of a blockbuster semi-final between top-ranked defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and second-ranked Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.

Rybakina beat Sabalenka in January's Australian Open final, Sabalenka avenging that defeat in the Indian Wells final this month.

Now Sabalenka hopes to extend her 9-7 lead in their all-time rivalry on the way to completing her own ""Sunshine Double".

Rybakina, seeded third despite rising to second in the world after her run to the Indian Wells final, was the Miami runner-up in 2023 and 2024 but has yet to lift the trophy.

Their rematch marks the first time outside the WTA Finals that the world's two top-ranked players meet before a final since Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna in the 1998 US Open semi-finals.

Sinner will next face either world number four Alexander Zverev of Germany or 19th-ranked Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

Tiafoe netted a backhand to surrender a break to Sinner in the opening game of the match and the Italian was off and running, dropping just four points on his serve in pocketing the set in 31 minutes.

In the second set, Tiafoe saved a break point and held serve in the opening game but Sinner broke in the third for a 2-1 lead, breaking again for 5-2 when Tiafoe smacked a forehand wide.

- 'Good serving day' -

Sinner, the 2024 Miami champion, fired 14 aces and 33 winners in all against 15 unforced errors.

"It was a good serving day for sure," Sinner said.

Gauff, who needed three sets in each of her four prior matches, surrendered a break on a double fault in the opening game against Muchova then then won the next six games to seize the first set.

Muchova netted a forehand to hand Gauff a break to begin the second and was broken again before finally holding for the first time in the match to pull within 4-1 -- having lost 10 games in a row.

Gauff broke again to finish the match after 89 minutes, booking her final berth less than three weeks after she retired from her third-round match at Indian Wells with a "scary" left arm injury.

Having reached her 15th WTA final, Gauff seeks her 12th tour title and first since last October in Wuhan. She is 6-6 all-time against Sabalenka and 1-0 against Rybakina.

Muchova, a champion last month in Qatar, fired 37 unforced errors as she missed out on her eighth career WTA final.

S.Wilson--ThChM