"Novak Djokovic is not playing; Jannik Sinner's taken it to a new level" - Martina Navratilova on whether Italian is the best player after Miami win

Martina Navratilova recently shared her thoughts on whether Jannik Sinner is the best player in the world following his title win at the 2024 Miami Open.

Sinner claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Grigor Dimitrov in just one hour and 14 minutes at the Miami 1000 tournament. The win marked the Italian's first trophy in Miami, and his third of the season (following the Australian Open and ABN AMRO Open title wins), and his second (after the 2023 Canadian Open) ATP Masters 1000 title overall.

With the win, Sinner is set to achieve a career-high World No. 2 ranking, which will make him the first Italian player to reach the milestone. He also became the first Italian to secure multiple Masters 1000 titles all while extending his record for the most tour-level trophies won by an Italian in the Open Era to 13 titles.

Following Jannik Sinner's Miami Open title win, while speaking on Tennis Channel, 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, Martina Navratilova was asked if Sinner is currently the best player in the world.

She responded affirmatively, stating that with Novak Djokovic being absent from the tournament, Sinner has shown remarkable consistency and skill on the ATP Tour, which gives him a significant edge over his opponents.

“Well, Novak Djokovic is not playing unfortunately for us. Yes, he’s [Sinner] been the most consistent and his average today is better than everybody else’s average at the moment. He’s taken it to a whole new level," Navratilova said (at 0:03).

The former World No. 1 also stated that due to the purple patch in his career that he is going through, Jannik Sinner has a lot of "peace of mind" and "confidence" on the court.

"So it gives him a lot of peace of mind because he knows he doesn’t have to play out of his socks. He does not have to redline anything to win matches, the other guys are the ones that have to redline. So that gives you a lot of confidence,” she added.

Jannik Sinner on Miami Open win: "I'm really proud obviously about the result"

Jannik Sinner with the 2024 Miami Open trophy

Following his win over Grigor Dimitrov at the 2024 Miami Open final, Jannik Sinner expressed his pride in his performance and how he navigated the match. He acknowledged the challenges of the tournament stating that it was not an easy tournament to play so it was satisfying to secure the title.

"I'm really proud obviously about the result," Sinner said [via ATPTour.com]. "Today's performance was really, really good. I'm just proud of how I handled the situation. It was not easy, so it was a very, very good two weeks."

Sinner also said that the hard-court season till now has been "very good" for him.

"I just try to improve... And also enjoying the moment. 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. Let's see how I will play from now on. But for sure, the hard-court season until now has been very good," he added.

Jannik Sinner's Miami Open triumph takes his win-loss record for the 2024 season to 22-1.