ATP Masters 1000 Miami - March 28

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It's still early, there are so many matches daily, but we're getting closer to quarter finals, when we get to see the best of the tournament. Till then, let's see what's happened lately.

Damir Džumhur vs Stefanos Tsitsipas (1-6) (4-6)

The level of the two players can't be compared, 2 seed against No. 119 ATP but that's life, you play with whoever you have to. This is how these two players met yesterday. However, even an No. 119 ATP can be difficult.

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Looking at the statistics, Džumhur had a pretty good performance, only had two double faults and his first serve % is 69 compared to 78% what Tsitsipas had. He needs to work on getting better at aces, that's where he can gain more I believe. He had none in this game.

He's a Bosnia and Herzegovina resident, no. 1 in his country at the moment. During the pandemic he got stuck in Bosnia and had difficulties training. Top level players live mostly in Monaco or other fiscal paradises, where they can train together. Džumhur on the other hand had difficulties finding a training partner in his country.

He's not a spring chicken anymore, at his age (28), he may not have more time to advance on the list, but he's still a valuable player, who made Tsitsipas work for the victory. He won $26,000 so far and will get to $40,000 if he can win the next one.

Alex de Minaur vs Daniel Elahi Galán (6-4)(3-6) (4-6)

This match should have been a good one, easy for de Minaur, but in fact it was full of mistakes. I guess if we count how many times we heard OUT, the result would be shocking.

de Minaur should have won the match as he was 16 seed but it wasn't his day, he was dragging himself, struggling. Galán took advantage of the situation and won. 15 seed is going home, or can enjoy Miami's night life, what he could not do while still playing.

Jordan Thompson vs Milos Raonic (2-6) (1-6)

Raonic had an easy job with Thompson yesterday. It must be painful to lose to a score like that, but it happens. Raonic had 14 aces vs 2 of Thompson's. You can't compete with that, you have to make sure you get better at your game. Jordan Thompson is 26, at this age you either are good or you're not. He seems to be the later.

Diego Schwartzman vs Yasutaka Uchiyama (6-3)(6-3)

I have a soft spot for Diego Schwartzman as he's in a unique position. The Argentinian is 1.67 m tall, which is extremely short in tennis. Even i am taller than him. Playing against giants of 2m tall can be a real challenge and he's doing well. He's No. 9 ATP at he moment and maybe the shortest of all. I have a huge respect for him for this. His nickname is El Peque, which means shortie :)

Being born in Argentina, Diego Maradona's country, he had two choices as a kid. The first was the obvious, football of course, what else, but he chose tennis ad was a good choice.

He did well yesterday, qualifying for the next round.

Other Results

Sonego and Musetti, two of the Italian players present in Miami are both qualifies for the next round. Musetti was not on the seed list, but he managed to beat 23 seed Paire.

Fognini on the other hand got to the end of the road in Miami yesterday. Fognini 10 seed got defeated by the American Korda. Looks like he's on a roller coaster ride, at the bottom again. That's what he does usually.

Kei Nishikori is continuing his series of success, bearing Aljaž Bedene in 3 very tough sets. The first set ended with a spectacular tie break. Nishikori is going to meet Tzitzipas next but more about this match later. He's someone to pay attention to as it can turn ptedicions upside down.

Márton Fucsovics did well as well against the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis qualifying for the next round.

Rublev won against the American Tennys Sandgren in two easy sets. He is lucky trust me, he gets off easy in each tournament. Tomorrow he's going to meet the Hungarian Márton Fucsovics. Even though I'm 99% sure he's going to win, I hope Fucsovics is going to make him work hard for the victory in an 3 hour match. That's what I'm expecting.

They met a week ago in Dubai, where Rublev won, but it wasn't exactly easy for him, especially the first set. In mid March he got lucky again in Qatar. He should have played against Fucsovics, but it was a walkover as Fucsovich had back problems if memory serves me well.
Rublev had two walkover matches and got into quarters without playing tennis. He got called out later for getting off easy and now he thinks most of his success is just luck, that's what he said in an interview.

I don't think he's not valuable, he's really talented and a good player, but I agree, he had a lot of luck and has not been forced to play long and tiring matches for victory. It's not his fault but it's not looking good either.

Another match he had this year with Fuchovich was in Rotterdam at the beginning of March. Rublev won all the matches so far this year, he may win this one too, but I hope one nice day the Hungarian is going to step up and beat him. Would be great.

What I regret the most is Lloyd Harris, the South African's walkover on March 26 against Bautista. I don't know what's happened, Harris must have had some health problems as Bautista is still in. Too bad as i'd have loved to see him playing. He's a huge talent.


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