Sinner Saves! Italian Erases 5 MPs To Edge PCB

For the second straight match, Jannik Sinner saved multiple match points to advance at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

After saving three against Emil Ruusuvuoiri in his opening match, the 20-year-old followed that up by erasing five against Pablo Carreno Busta in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 win.

A Miami finalist in 2021, the Italian was fighting from behind from the start of the match on Court Butch Buchholz and staved off his first match point on serve at 5-4 in the second. From Ad-out, he won 11 straight points to force a third. He was in even bigger trouble in the decider, falling behind by a break before breaking at love to prevent Carreno Busta from serving it out.

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That set the stage for an epic five-deuce service game that lasted more than 11 minutes and saw Sinner shake off four more match points. He did so with a flourish, gaining more and more crowd support by the minute with his fearless play. Staying aggressive with his back against the wall, the Italian hit two forehand winners — one off the ground and another with a volley — and drew two errors to stay alive.

Back level, Sinner turned the tables by pressuring the 17th seed’s serve and breaking to edge in front, much to the delight of the Miami crowd. In a three-hour, 11-minute contest, the point of the match may have come in the final game. Sinner showed his athleticism to return a dribbler off the net cord, then guessed right to stab a volley at Carreno Busta’s feet, drawing an error 

He needed two match points of his own to seal the deal, booking his place in the last 16 with a forehand winner as he improved his record in deciding sets to 5-0 on the season. 

Sinner sets up a marquee matchup against the red-hot Nick Kyrgios, who stormed past Andrey Rublev and Fabio Fognini to reach the fourth round without dropping a set.  Sinner and Kyrgios were set to face off at the same stage at Indian Wells earlier this month, but the Italian withdrew due to illness.

Their Miami matchup will be the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting. By beating Carreno Busta, Sinner levelled their head-to-head record at 1-1.

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