Less than a month ago, #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe found his big breakthrough, winning his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Delray Beach Open to become the youngest American to claim a trophy since a 19-year-old Andy Roddick did so in 2002. But his next time out, Tiafoe lost in straight sets against compatriot Ernesto Escobedo at Indian Wells. Would Tiafoe bounce back in Miami?

A tremendous 29-shot rally to save set point at 5-6 in the second set emphatically answered that question. Tiafoe buckled down when he needed to most, battling to defeat Argentine Nicolas Kicker 6-3, 7-6(4) at the Miami Open presented by Itau Thursday evening to advance to the second round at the tournament for the second consecutive year.

“Unbelievable tennis toward the end. It could have went either way and luckily it went my way,” Tiafoe said. “I don’t even know how long that rally was. That was an unbelievable rally.”

When Kicker’s final one-handed backhand sailed long, Tiafoe let out a scream that echoed through the Florida night, and he proceeded to whack the ball from his pocket into the stands in excitement — it was another great win in what has been the best year of the #NextGenATP star’s young career thus far. Prior to the New York Open in February, Tiafoe had never made an ATP World Tour quarter-final. In fact, last season, the right-hander earned seven tour-level victories. Thursday evening’s triumph was Tiafoe’s eighth tour-level win of the year, and it’s only March.

“I’m happy with the way I played tonight. Trying to build off that and keep going,” Tiafoe said. “I’m playing great… good to get this and be able to play another match.”

While the 20-year-old fell against eventual champion Roger Federer in the second round last year, he will look to go a step further against No. 21 seed Kyle Edmund, this year’s Australian Open semi-finalist. It will be the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. 

 Watch Full Match Replays

Outside of the Delray Beach Open — at which he made the semi-finals — American Steve Johnson had been 1-6 in tour-level matches this season. After a tough first-round exit at Indian Wells, the 28-year-old played an ATP Challenger Tour event in Irving, Texas, where he won three matches to gain some momentum.

It appears to have paid off, as Johnson swept pass the Dominican Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos 6-3, 6-3 to claim his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 victory of the season. Johnson will next face No. 18 seed Adrian Mannarino, against whom he owns a 2-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead.

Two players who did have success in the Coachella Valley appear to be carrying momentum over to the east coast. Leonardo Mayer, who advanced to the Round of 16 at Indian Wells and held a set and a break lead against eventual champion Juan Martin del Potro before bowing out, battled back to defeat home favourite Donald Young 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Argentine will next face BNP Paribas Open semi-finalist Borna Coric, whom he has beaten in their two previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.

Indian Yuki Bhambri, who won his first two Masters 1000 matches in California, earned his third victory at this level by defeating Sofia champion Mirza Basic 7-5, 6-3. That earns the qualifier a second-round battle against eighth seed Jack Sock.

Did You Know?
Tiafoe won seven tour-level matches in 2017. His victory against Kicker Thursday evening was his eighth tour-level triumph before the end of March in 2018.

Just two days after turning 18 years old, Nicola Kuhn gave himself the best birthday gift possible — the #NextGenATP Spaniard defeated qualifier Darian King 7-6 (4), 6-4, in one hour and 42 minutes at the Miami Open presented by Itau to become the youngest Spaniard to win an ATP World Tour match since 17-year-old Rafael Nadal defeated a 17-year-old Richard Gasquet in the second round at 2004 Estoril.

And not only was this the Spaniard’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 main-draw match, but it was Kuhn’s second tour-level match overall. 

“This is a special day for me,” Kuhn said following his win on Court 7 in Miami. “It was a very tough match. I’m happy with today’s victory, but now I need to focus on my next match.”

Kuhn, who will play No. 15 seed Fabio Fognini, isn’t the first Spaniard to clinch his inaugural ATP World Tour victory this year. In January, Ricardo Ojeda Lara defeated Jiri Vesely 6-3, 7-6(5) to earn his first win; Carlos Taberner notched his maiden win one month later by defeating Norbert Gombos 7-6(5), 7-6(1) at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Kuhn has been in form since claiming his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title at Braunschweig in July 2017. He credits his work off the court to his success and insists that his work ethic will lift him to future triumphs.

“I’ve put in my time over the years to get to where I am,” Kuhn said. “People here [on the ATP World Tour] have a lot more experience than I have. I have to play matches, learn — whether I win or lose — and ultimately seize opportunities and give my all.”

Kuhn knows that while his triumph was one he won’t forget, he will keep pushing himself to play his very best.

“The key is to just go out there at every tournament and see what’s my limit,” Kuhn said. “Playing [Fognini] will be tough, but I can make it interesting. I just want to enjoy myself out there.”

Roger Federer remembers well his first professional match at Crandon Park, home to the Miami Open presented by Itau for the last time in 2018. It was 1999, the Swiss star’s first season on the ATP World Tour and he was handed a wild card into the tournament in which he drew Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen.

Federer, then No. 125 in the ATP Rankings, lost that first-round match 7-5, 7-6(4). The Dane would go on to beat Goran Ivanisevic in the next round before Francisco Clavet ended his run.

Only a year prior, Federer had won the prestigious Orange Bowl junior championships. He would later claim the 1998 junior Wimbledon title on his way to ending the year as the World No. 1 junior.

“I mean, I was excited,” Federer said. “I don’t know when I found out that I was going to get the wild card for the ’99 Miami Open. That was a big deal. Unfortunately I played a horrible match, terrible attitude in that match, lost first round.

“But in the juniors, I played some great players. I remember beating [David] Nalbandian in the semis and [Guillermo] Coria in the finals on this very court. Yeah, my memories of Key Biscayne go way back.

“I guess I finished as World No. 1 junior after winning that final. I needed to win to clinch it. Then after that I figured, well… who knows? I could become World No. 1 in the pros but still a long way away, but you start to have a dream, and I think it helped me to win the Orange Bowl here in that year.”

Three times the Swiss has gone on to claim the Miami title in his career, including in 2017 when he defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the final. He will open his 17th campaign against #NextGen Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis.

The 36-year-old arrives in Miami on the back of a thrilling final defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro in Indian Wells, where three championship points slipped from his grasp. It snapped his career-best start to a season (17-0).

“It always takes a few days to recover from a busy and high-intensity weekend,” Federer said. “Regardless of how difficult the match was physically, you still have a letdown emotionally, because you’re drained from that perspective… You’re emotionally drained after every final, regardless if you win or lose.

“I’m happy about how I played and how I felt afterwards. Didn’t take me a whole lot of time to get over it, to be honest, because I felt like it could have gone either way. Unfortunately I wasn’t on the winner’s side because maybe I have had enough luck throughout the last 14 months on my side of the court, so it’s OK to lose some.”

Despite Nadal’s absence from the tournament, Federer must reach at least the quarter-finals to retain his grip on the No. 1 ATP Ranking. It remains among his greatest motivators. 

“Winning tournaments, I guess trying to stay world No. 1,” he said. “At this point, because I’m so close, everything is so tight. Stay injury-free, enjoy myself, try to beat the best players that are out there.

“Yeah, that’s it. And just enjoy it from that perspective. Then obviously there is a lot of family and friends and that stuff, the more important things that I care a lot about.”

#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov was made to work hard on Thursday as he made a winning start on his Miami Open presented by Itau debut. The 18-year-old led Viktor Troicki of Serbia 5-1 in the third set and required six match points to wrap up a 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(6) victory in two hours and 27 minutes. He’ll now prepare to meet No. 24 seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia & Herzegovina in the second round.

Troicki, who reached the fourth round in 2009 and 2011, lost six first-service points in the first two sets, but Shapovalov regained the momentum by winning four games in a row from 1-1 in the decider. The World No. 46 then failed to convert two match point opportunities at 5-1 and, in a tense end to the third set, Troicki worked his way back – recovering from 0/40 and a further three match points in the 10th game. The pair’s second meeting (2017 Rolex Shanghai Masters) was decided on a tie-break, which saw Shapovalov win the first three points.

Watch Hot Shot: Troicki Strikes Backhand Pass

 Watch Full Match Replays

Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka started his Miami campaign in confident fashion by beating #NextGenATP Australian qualifier Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-4 in 77 minutes. He will now square-off against tenth-seeded Czech and 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych, who Nishioka beat en route to the 2017 BNP Paribas Open fourth round.

Elsewhere, Spanish wild card Nicola Kuhn recorded his first ATP World Tour match win in a hard-fought 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Darian King of Barbados in one hour and 42 minutes for a second-round clash against Italian No. 15 seed Fabio Fognini, the Brasil Open titlist in February.

Directing first serves out wide in the Ad court will bring significantly more shorter returns than hitting them wide in the Deuce court.

The primary reason is that right-handed returners must hit a backhand return in the Ad court, and we now know that depth is a real issue with this specific shot from out wide. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of more than 17,000 wide returns against first serves in both the Deuce and Ad courts hit by current players in the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings uncovers this hidden strategic anomaly.

The data set of 17,705 wide first serve returns comes from ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and Nitto ATP Finals from 2011-2018. Return depth is divided up into three categories.

1. Short = In the service box.
2. Middle = Behind the service line (but closer to the service line than baseline).
3. Deep = Closer to the baseline than the service line.

Return depth to the middle area was the most constant between the Deuce and Ad courts, only varying 1.9 percentage points (49.7% to 47.8%).

The larger percentage swings were primarily from short returns in the service box and deep returns back near the baseline. There was a significant 5.4 percentage difference in short returns, and a 3.6 percentage point swing in deep returns hit between the Deuce and Ad courts.

Wide Return Location Deuce Ct & Ad Ct: Return Depth = Short / Middle / Long

Quite clearly, making first serves out wide in the Ad court (to a right hander’s backhand return) will bring a lot more short, attackable balls back in the service box for the server to feast on.

Deuce Court Wide Returns
Former World No. 1s Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are at either ends of the spectrum regarding return depth from the Deuce court. Out of the current Top 20, Nadal hit the most amount of short returns in the service box (his backhand return) at 31.8 per cent, while Djokovic hits the least, at only 17.9 per cent.

Deuce Court: Return Depth from Wide Serves

Dominic Thiem hit the highest amount of deep returns, at 33.7 per cent, while Sam Querrey struggled the most to get Deuce court forehand returns deep, averaging only 20.7 per cent.

Ad Court Wide Returns
Djokovic was also the peak performer in keeping his first serve returns out of the service box in the Ad court, only hitting 21.6 per cent of his returns there. The Serb also hit the most amount in the deep section (28.9%), followed by Kevin Anderson (26.9%), Grigor Dimitrov (26.4%) and Dominic Thiem (26.1%).

Ad Court: Return Depth from Wide Serves

What’s the action plan from this insightful new data? Make sure you have got a solid wide first serve in the Ad court to take advantage of short backhand returns, and if you are on the receiving side of the equation, add a little more height to your Ad court return to give it the extra wings it needs to make it deep back near the baseline.