Daniil Medvedev beat Italy’s Jannik Sinner 7-5, 6-3 to win the Miami Open on Sunday for his fourth title of the year and 19th overall.

The jubilant fourth seed pumped his fist after pounding an unreturnable serve on match point to seal the win on a hot and humid day at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. This was the Russian’s fifth consecutive final after triumphs in Doha, Rotterdam and Dubai, before finishing runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells two weeks ago.

With the win, Medvedev earned his fifth Masters 1000 title and improved to 6-0 lifetime against Sinner. He is 24-1 since January’s Australian Open.

“I love hard courts. If it would be my choice, it would be only hard courts,” Medvedev said.

“I feel the best at my game on hard courts. Even if I know that I can play well enough on the grass and clay, on hard courts I feel the most fluid. I can play not my best tennis but still win the matches. That’s a big difference.”

The vanquished Sinner, who also made the Miami final in 2021 and is still searching for his first Masters 1000 title, even joked that perhaps the European clay could help slow down the hard-hitting Medvedev.

“Now clay season starts so let’s see how you do there, but I wish you all the best,” Sinner said with a smile during the trophy ceremony.

It has not been all bad news for Medvedev on clay. He made the quarter finals of the French Open in 2021, the semi-final at Monte-Carlo in 2019 and has beaten some of the sport’s biggest names on the surface.

“I know that I can play well on clay,” he said. “I beat Novak (Djokovic) once on clay. I actually beat (Stefanos) Tsitsipas and Novak at the same tournament once, wow. That’s pretty good achievement on clay.”

But working against him is the limited amount of time he has to prepare ahead of the Monte-Carlo Masters, which begins on April 9.

“The earlier you lose in Miami, the more clay court practice you can get,” he told Tennis Channel. “So the first tournament is going to be tough. I’m already preparing myself mentally not to lose my mind if I play really bad in Monte-Carlo. But maybe not? The confidence is still there. I am going to try my best and see how it goes.”

The world No.4 said he was fortunate that Sinner had to come through a physical, three-set battle in the semi-final on Friday night against top seed Alcaraz.

“I think everyone enjoyed the semi-final against Carlos, it was amazing,” Medvedev said at the trophy ceremony, where he collected nearly $1.3 million in prize money.

Medvedev, who called himself a “hard court specialist” when loudly complaining about the slow speed of the courts in Indian Wells, said he was grateful for the faster surfaces in Miami.

“I can handle myself and be calm on the court when I feel like it is a real hard court,” he said. “I don’t know who makes these decisions but thanks a lot to everyone who made this court this year. I was really happy to play on it.”