Last year, he lost to Daniil Medvedev, and avenged that loss at the 2024 Australian Open with a five-set win over the Russian.

On Sunday, in front of a near-capacity Stadium Court crowd chanting “Sinner! Sinner” the Italian did not look nervous at all. He broke Dimitrov in the fifth game to go up 3-2 and again in the final game of the set. The second set was no different, with Sinner in control from start to finish.

“Jannik raised his level the last six months and had a great finish to the year and had a lot of confidence coming into this year, it’s a credit to him is that he’s been able to keep his feet on the ground,” said Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill. “I thought he was incredible, barely any unforced errors.”

Sinner had just nine unforced errors, compared to 23 for Dimitrov, and he won 88 percent of his first serves.

Asked how Sinner compares to recent greats Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Cahill said: “I don’t think anybody should be comparing this generation yet to the generation we’ve just seen with Novak, still playing, with Federer, Nadal, what they’ve been able to achieve for so many years is remarkable. I don’t think we’ll ever see that domination again, no matter what.”

He added that the new generation of players is a direct result of the professionalism that preceded them with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He credited Sinner’s trainer Humberto Ferrero with improving his fitness.

Sinner is 22-1 this year, the best record in the ATP, so it was hardly a surprise that the Italian reached Sunday’s final at Hard Rock Stadium.

The surprise was that Dimitrov was his opponent.

The 32-year-old Bulgarian has always had supreme talent and variety in his game. He was nicknamed “Baby Roger” and “Baby Federer” early in his career because his playing style was similar to that of the Swiss maestro. What Dimitrov lacked was consistency.

Everything clicked for him during this Miami Open, until Sunday.

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