ATP / WTA: Sinner and Collins momentous in Miami

A winning machine and an American dream stole the headlines at the Miami Open.

Let's take a look at the key storylines from Stateside as the Tours close a captivating hard-court segment on the 2024 calendar.

Sinner keeps getting better

Jannik Sinner had the rest of the draw under his high-octane, ultra-confident spell in the Magic City.

The Australian Open champion, previously runner-up in Miami back in 2021 and 2023, underpinned his status as the Tour's current best as he steamrolled to the title on Sunday.

The Italian swatted aside resurgent Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-1 to land his second Masters 1000 title. As his reward, Sinner will rise to world No.2 for the first time on Monday.

"I'm really proud obviously about the result," said the 22-year-old, who lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells semi-finals earlier in March. "As the tournament went on, I felt better and better. Today's performance was really, really good. I'm just proud how I handled the situation. It was not easy, so it was a very, very good two weeks."

Four tournaments have yielded three titles for the Italian thus far this season. The champion in Melbourne, Rotterdam and now Miami continues to demonstrate his major winning consistency, having prevailed in 25 of his past 26 matches.

So proactive, so calm, Sinner is flipping defence into attack like the all-time greats. So much so, 'The Fox' clattered world No.4 Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-2 in the semi-finals. Remember, Dimitrov is in the form of his life and ousted Top 10 trio Hubert Hurkacz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev to reach the final. No sweat for Sinner.

"Staying in the present moment. What it has been, it has been. I just try to improve... And also enjoying the moment," said Sinner, explaining his supreme season so far. "This is a special moment. You never know if this is the last time or not.

"So, you have to enjoy this for one day, and now a new chapter is coming, clay court is coming, so completely different. Let's see how I will play from now on. But for sure, the hard court season until now has been very good."

Simply put Sinner is the man to beat. Roll on the Road to Roland-Garros 2024.

Collins in Miami dreamland

Fresh from lifting the biggest title of her career, in her home state, Danielle Collins kept mentioning the "surreal" nature of the triumph.

Well, rewind to mid-January and the American announced she was retiring at the end of the season. Two months later and the 30-year-old captured her maiden WTA 1000 title in Miami.

Collins toppled No.4 seed Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 to land a third WTA winner's trophy, her first in three years.

The retirement talk became overbearing for Collins in Miami, the world No.22 (up 31 spots from No.53) was adamant she'll stick by her decision despite an astonishing showing in Miami.

"I'm living with a chronic inflammatory disease that affects your ability to get pregnant, and so that's a deeply personal situation," declared Collins. "At the end of the day, this is my personal choice. This has so much more to do than just tennis and my career."

After dropping the first set to Bernarda Pera in the opening round, Collins clicked into a devastating patch of from to win every other set, which included dismissing seeded trio Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Garcia and Ekaterina Alexandrova, before No.4 seed Rybakina.

Collins hadn't defeated a Top 5 player since 2022, but the significant victory over Rybakina on Sunday chalked up her season record to a mightily impressive 20-7.

"I have always wanted to win every tournament that I have signed up for, but I do think that because it is my last year, I'm like, I really want to try to win a WTA 1000 this year," said the Australian Open 2022 finalist.

"That's really important to me. That's something that I talked a lot about with everybody close to me. It has been a goal. So I got to tick it off the list."