One Direction and two ATP Tour stars combined for an unforgettable moment in Mexico.

Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev spent a day in Mexico before traveling to Florida for the Miami Open presented by Itau. They received a big surprise when they met One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson.

“That was funny because when we were arriving, we saw so many people in front of the hotel,” Rublev said. “Daniil was like, ‘Why [are there] so many people here?’

“Outside of the hotel were a thousand people, kids, girls. As soon as he came out you cannot imagine what was happening. I saw it only in YouTube videos. I’ve never seen something like this in my life.”

 

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Rublev took his phone out to record the scene as Tomlinson’s fans screamed. When the singer walked by, he stopped to take a photo with the tennis players.

“It was a bit embarrassing, but it was still okay. In Daniil’s situation it was embarassing-embarassing because first of all the guy had no idea who we are and Daniil had no idea who he is. Me at least, I knew who he is, but Daniil had no idea,” Rublev said. “He was with 10 security [guards] around, he was in the middle and they were like, ‘Okay, fast, or something’. Even if they told him that we are athletes, that we are not that bad, not just random people.

“It was just, ‘Hey hey’, fast photo. But at least I knew who he is. Daniil, he didn’t even know, so he didn’t even want to do the photo. But [he did] because they said, ‘Okay let’s do it, it’s going to be nice’. Daniil didn’t know him, the guy didn’t know him, but it looked like Daniil is a friend of his because he was the one who approached.”

Rublev was plenty familiar with Tomlinson. In 2015, he recorded a music video covering One Direction’s Steal My Girl.

“Actually, I had fun. I like music a lot and I never had at that moment [the] experience [of] how you do [a music video] from the beginning because all the instruments that were there, it’s not from the cover,” Rublev said. “The guys were playing with real instruments. Everything — piano, guitar, drums — were separated and then they put them all together. So for me it was a really nice experience to see how this process goes.”

The biggest question is, who would Rublev have join him in a tennis-player version of One Direction.

“I would not pick myself,” Rublev quickly said.

He thought of players who look like an artist, producing names including Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Casper Ruud, who reminds him of Niall Horan.

How about Medvedev?

“No chance,” Rublev said. “Daniil can be the agent. Daniil is the manager.”

Andy Murray said that he was surprised with his flat performance Wednesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau after suffering a straights-sets loss to Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

Having won two matches at the BNP Paribas Open and coming into the tournament off the back of encouraging practice sessions at Hard Rock Stadium, the two-time Miami champion sad that he expected better.

“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today. Didn’t really return that well, made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making,” Murray said of the 6-4, 7-5 defeat.

“I didn’t really feel like I moved particularly well, which is really important for me, something I’ve been doing very well actually in most of the matches this year. So that was probably the thing.

“Some days you obviously don’t hit the ball your best, but my movement wasn’t great today.”

In his first career meeting against World No. 76 Lajovic, Murray said that he also struggled with a change in conditions from Indian Wells.

“I’d been practising pretty well. It’s a very different court here, very bouncy, much faster than last week. Very different to the practice courts and everything.

“The ball was bouncing up a bit higher and I just miss-timed quite a few balls. Sometimes on the slice it was shooting through a little bit more, kind of shanked a couple shots off the slice, as well… I wasn’t expecting to play like that, even based on the last few days because I’ve been decent in practice.”

Murray said that he was yet to decide if he would stay in Miami a little longer to begin preparation for the clay swing but added that he would return to Spain no later than the end of this month, when he will reunite with his family and begin a training block.

Murray has 14 ATP Masters 1000 titles among his 46 career triumphs. His most recent win at this level came in Paris/Bercy in 2016, when he first rose to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Wu Yibing continued his ascent on Wednesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

The Chinese star defeated Briton Kyle Edmund 7-5, 7-5 to reach the second round at the ATP Masters 1000 event. This year’s Dallas Open champion will next face 31st seed Diego Schwartzman to reach the third round at this level for the first time.

Six years ago, Wu made his Miami debut in qualifying as a 17-year-old, losing in straight sets to Jared Donaldson. In his first match at the event since, the 23-year-old broke his opponent’s serve four times to triumph after one hour and 35 minutes.

It was not an easy win, though. Wu let slip an opportunity to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set against Edmund, who was playing his fourth match of the year. But the Chinese player did not allow the complication to fully shift the momentum to Edmund’s side. The former World No. 14, who is working back to form following injury, missed a backhand wide to fall in straight sets.

Did You Know?
This week last year, Wu was tied for No. 1,869 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. With his win against Edmund, he climbed to No. 57 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Daniil Medvedev isn’t ready to throw out the playbook just yet.

Despite scavenging just five games from Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s one-sided BNP Paribas Open final, ‘Deep-court Daniil’ says that he won’t be altering his court position should he face the World No. 1 again at the Miami Open presented by Itau this fortnight.

“It’s possible [that I may not play as deep] but I’m not sure if I would do it,” he said Wednesday of his next hard-court meeting with Alcaraz, whenever that might come. “For sure if I lose two matches in a row staying back and [I get beaten] just as easy I have to definitely change something. But one match is not enough.”

Alcaraz exploited Medvedev’s positioning through a combination of well-timed serve/volley plays, his signature drop shots, and by taking advantage of the slower court conditions to take big cuts from the ground to clock a series of winners past the 2021 US Open champion.

But Medvedev believes that faster conditions at other hard-court events – including in Miami – will favour his preferred position deep behind the baseline.

“I’ll only have to wait for a match on faster hard courts to see if my court positioning will work when the ball is flying faster through the air and the opponent won’t have as much time to play serve and volley and play from the baseline,” he said. “During the match there was a small time when I tried to play a little more aggressive and closer to the baseline. But on those one or two games he was serving bombs so that didn’t help me. And it’s not that easy to change things up during a match.”

Despite his 6-3, 6-2 loss to Alcaraz in the Indian Wells title match, Medvedev arrives in Miami high on confidence, having won 19 of his past 20 matches, a run comprising titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and the BNP Paribas Open final. That already is an improvement on the two titles he won last year. Medvedev, who is 23-4 on the season, said that rediscovering his consistency has underpinned his recent surge back into the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

“I managed to get back in the zone, which I didn’t really have for all of 2022, when I was less consistent,” he said. “I would have some good matches or tournaments but out of nowhere I would have one bad match. I’ve managed to avoid that the past four weeks. I have no idea how I have done it, but I am really happy and want to continue.”

Medvedev’s first-round opponent in Miami will be the winner of the all-Spanish clash between Roberto Carballes Baena and Bernabe Zapata Miralles. He is in the bottom half of the draw, so could only meet Alcaraz should both players reach the final.

World No. 76 Dusan Lajovic brushed aside his recent modest hard-court record to upset two-time former champion Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 on Day 1 of men’s main-draw action at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Serbian, who was once as high as No. 23 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, had won just four of 16 matches on hard courts since the start of 2022. But the 2019 Monte-Carlo finalist won his first career meeting with Murray to pick up his first hard-court win of the season.

Lajovic’s victory was underpinned by his strong performance on second serve against one of the game’s best returners. He won 72 per cent of second-serve points and saved two of the three break points he faced, while converting all three opportunities on Murray’s serve. He failed to serve out the match at 5-4 but after missing two match points from 40/0 in the final game, he closed out the match when Murray framed a forehand at the end of an extended rally.

“When I didn’t close it out I thought it’s happening again,” Lajovic said of Murray’s ability to pull victory from the jaws of defeat this year. “Honestly that last game I was super right at 40/0 and he was able to put pressure on me. Luckily he shanked the last forehand, which he normally doesn’t do.”

Murray ends the ATP Masters 1000 ‘Sunshine Doubles’ with a 2-2 record in Indian Wells and Miami, having reached the third round at the BNP Paribas Open. The 35-year-old Scot slips to 8-5 on the season, highlighted by a run to the Doha final (l. Medvedev).

Lajovic, who also now has an 8-5 record on the season, next faces American serve/volleyer Maxime Cressy. “I don’t like playing guys like him. They try to provoke you and put you under pressure on your own service games. I’ll try to stay mentally stable.”

In the latest Players’ Voice first-person essay, Carlos Alcaraz provides Eurosport with insight into his mindset coming back from injury and his big ambitions in the sport. Below is an excerpt, reproduced with permission from Eurosport.

The injury has been a learning process. I had to be calm and it has helped me to mature a lot off the court. These were not easy days for me, they were quite hard. I had to stay focused and train to come back stronger. During my recovery, as I have done on several occasions, I worked a lot with my psychologist. She helps me a lot both on and off the court. The off-court side is almost more important, as you spend most of your time there.

I thought a lot about Nadal when I was recovering from my injury. Often when the best players have been out for a long time, they win their first tournament back. I wanted to be one of those players. Those examples of successful returns have motivated me – like what Rafa did at the 2022 Australian Open, and when Djokovic has returned from absences, he has won important tournaments. These examples are inspirations to think, ‘let’s get back training’ because I also want to come back the best I can to try to win…

… In Miami, I’m going to have to start defending a lot of points. I think about that subconsciously because you want to be at the top of the rankings. But together with my team, we have always said that the important thing is the race to the Nitto ATP Finals. If you have a good year in the race, you will finish high in the rankings. I don’t worry too much about defending points, I just think about enjoying the tournament I am playing, and trying to do the best I can…

…I want to beat Nadal and Djokovic, but I am not here to take any Grand Slams away from them or prevent either of them from being the best of all time. I am just trying to write my own history.

I want to win Slams. I am ambitious and my goals are big, I’m not going to lie. My dream is to be one of the best in history, to try to get somehow close to them. I know it will be very complicated – maybe even impossible – but in this world you have to think big and dream big. In the end, that is my dream today.

Read full article at Eurosport.com

Brandon Nakashima brought his big-hitting best to his opening match Wednesday at the 2023 Miami Open presented by Itau, where the American prevailed 7-6(3), 6-3 against Oscar Otte to reach the second round at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The 21-year-old Nakashima was rock-solid for much of an 88-minute encounter that was largely dominated by serve and raised his level during two crucial periods in the match to secure his victory. He fired a series of clean winners to dominate the first-set tie-break before striking some high-class returns to clinch the only break of serve in the match in the sixth game of the second set.

Nakashima did not face a break point en route to victory in his maiden ATP Head2Head clash with Germany’s Otte. The World No. 45 fired 28 winners, including 10 aces, to set a second-round matchup against 20th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

It was a welcome triumph for Nakashima, who will hope he can use it as a basis for improved results in a 2023 season for which he now holds a 3-4 record. The Californian is seeking to back up his strong 2022, when he clinched his maiden ATP Tour title in his hometown of San Diego before lifting the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy in Milan.

It will be a second tour-level meeting of the season between Nakashima and Davidovich Fokina. The Spaniard was a straight-sets winner in their January meeting at the Adelaide International 2.

Taro Daniel also advanced to the second round on Wednesday after the Japanese wild card’s opponent Arthur Rinderknech retired from the pair’s first-round match when trailing 1-4 in the opening set.

Daniel, who reached the third round as a qualifier last week in Indian Wells with a run that included a victory against Matteo Berrettini, will play 13th seed Alexander Zverev next.

An ATP Masters 1000 champion, Grand Slam quarter-finalist and World No. 8 by the age of 19, Holger Rune has made a sudden impact on the ATP Tour.

But asked to assess how much of his potential had been fulfilled, the Dane suggested that there was plenty of upside left to come, reflecting his strong desire to succeed and delivering a clear message of intent to his rivals.

“I think [I have reached] maybe 55 or 60 per cent [of my potential],” said Rune. “I’m 19, so I feel like I have a lot to learn still. When I’m out there playing, I feel still like I can be a lot better, which is in a way nice but sometimes frustrating.

“I just have to look at it as a positive thing. I’m No. 8 in the world now, and I’ve reached I think maybe 55 or 60 per cent of my potential, so it’s a positive thing.”

Rune acknowledged that setbacks like his three-set defeat to Stan Wawrinka in the third round at Indian Wells will only help him on his mission to reach a higher level. He will put any new learnings from that loss to the test this week on debut at the Miami Open presented by Itau, where he takes on Marton Fucsovics or Pedro Cachin in his opening match.

“I didn’t play very well, but credit to Stan, he beat me,” said Rune, who is 10-7 for the 2023 season, of the Wawrinka defeat. “You have those kinds of matches sometimes, and you just have to learn a little bit from it and move on as quickly as possible.

“I’ve done that pretty well here [in Miami]. We’ve had a lot of good practice sessions, I feel ready, ready to go out there and have fun. It’s the last hard-court tournament before the clay season, so I’m just going to enjoy it as much as I can.”

Rune’s rapid progress in the past 12 months makes him something of an anomaly on Tour. He is a Top 10 player and won the 2022 Rolex Paris Masters, but has still only competed in the main draw of five of the nine ATP Masters 1000 events. That will become six out of nine this week, when he hopes to add some more positive memories to his mixed past experiences in Miami.

“I never played the junior tournaments [here], like the Orange Bowl, so I came here for the first time for a pre-season that Patrick [Mouratoglou] invited me to,” explained Rune. “The second time was last year here. I only got to play 20 minutes, unfortunately I was injured, in the first round of qualifying, but now I’m here as the seventh seed so it’s a bit of a better feeling this year.

“I’ve played almost all the biggest tournaments in the main draws now. This is a very special tournament, so it’s definitely one I would like to see myself win in future. It’s a great event, I really enjoy being in Miami and I cannot wait to start.”