Second seed, Jannik Sinner of Italy, credits his serve for helping him to complete the prestigious Sunshine Double on Sunday.

Sinner beat the 21st-seeded Czech, Jiri Lehecka, in straight sets in the Miami Open final.

The Italian is the first man since Roger Federer in 2017 to win the Indian Wells and Miami titles back-to-back.

Rain delayed the start of the match by 90 minutes but once play got going, nothing was going to stop the second seed.

Lehecka, who played in his first Masters 1000 final, tried to provide some resistance.

But Sinner was his unstoppable self, he created 11 break points throughout the match, fired 10 aces to five and hit 22 winners to Lehecka’s 16.

In the end, Sinner only needed 93 minutes to record a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

He bagged his seventh Masters 1000 crown and extended his record to 34 consecutive sets won at this level.

The Italian believes his serve made the difference this time around.

“Also, this month, I feel like here, I was serving better than at Indian Wells. But we worked a lot to be in this position. Now, on clay, the serve, you need to use it in a very different way. You cannot go only flat. Let’s see how that works. At the moment, I also want to enjoy this moment”, said Sinner.

Sinner became only the eighth man to complete the Sunshine Double.

He joins the likes of Novak Djokovic, Federer, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, who all managed to achieve this feat.

Despite losing, Lehecka moved up eight places on the latest world rankings.
He is now at a career-best 14th.

–SABC–