#NextGenATP Tiafoe Sets Up Federer Clash

#NextGenATP player Frances Tiafoe finished strongly in his opening round match on Thursday at the Miami Open presented by Itau, racing through the final set against Konstantin Kravchuk to advance 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 and set up a clash with fourth seed Roger Federer.

The American qualifier was unable to convert on two break points up 5-4 in the second set and the Russian eventually levelled the match, but Tiafoe bounced back by surging to a 5-0 lead in the decider. A strong forehand from Tiafoe on his first match point wrapped up the contest after just over two hours of play.

Tiafoe also defeated Kravchuk last week in the opening round of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Irving, Texas. His next match against Federer will mark the first time that the 19 year old has faced a player inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Horacio Zeballos set up a second-round clash with top seed Stan Wawrinka after outlasting Gastao Elias 6-7(2), 6-2, 7-5 in two hours and 36 minutes. Zeballos served to stay in the match at 4-5 in the final set before breaking in the next game. The Argentine improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Elias to 2-1.

Darian King also continued his push towards the Top 100 by prevailing in an all-qualifier battle over Lukas Lacko 7-6(2), 6-4. The Barbados native scored his first main draw win at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event just two weeks ago at the BNP Paribas Open. Next up for King is eighth seed David Goffin.

Other first-round winners on Thursday included Tommy Robredo, Andreas Seppi and Adrian Mannarino. 

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