Sinner survives Michelsen to advance in Miami Open quarterfinals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Jannik Sinner escaped tough and resilient Alex Michelsen, 7-5, 7-6, to march into the quarterfinal round of the ongoing Miami Open tournament on March 25, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The result may look good on paper with a 2-0 sweep, but Sinner admitted that he was pushed to his limits in an exhausting clash with Michelsen that lasted an hour and 41 minutes.

A back-and-forth opening saw both players hold serve until the 5-all deadlock, when Sinner finally found an opening for a break point in the 11th game to surge ahead.

The old-fashioned service hold battle quickly turned into a chess match heading into the 12th game, when the American ace gambled on several net approaches in hopes of catching Sinner off guard.

However, that risk eventually failed, as Sinner delivered back-to-back strong serves to move to set point at 40-30 en route to a momentum-boosting 1-0 lead.

Eager to recapture his footing, Michelsen stunned Sinner with a 5-2 burst in the second set and moved within a set of equalizing the affair at 1-all.

Just when Michelsen thought everything would fall in his favor, Sinner proved he still had enough gas left in the tank, staging a dramatic comeback with a break point in the eighth game to trim his deficit to 3-5.

Michelsen was close to stealing the set after leading 40-30 on Sinner’s next service game, but the Italian netter held serve to force deuce, followed by back-to-back baseline winners to stay alive in the match.

Sinner then took advantage of Michelsen’s sloppy return game to extend the match into a tiebreaker, which he dominated with on-point down-the-line forehands and a couple of service aces.

After two sets of high-octane tennis, Sinner wrapped up the Round of 16 win with a total of 71 points won, including 22 on the return and 15 service aces.

Sinner will have only a day of rest before returning to the hard court on March 27, 2026, against Francis Tiafoe in the first set of quarterfinal matches.