Third Time Lucky For Medvedev? Russian Faces Tricky Path In Miami
If Daniil Medvedev is to make it third time lucky and lift the Miami Open presented by Itau title he will may need to work his way past the likes of Alexander Zverev, Roberto Bautista Agut and Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in his fifth ATP Masters 1000 final.
The World No. 2, who is hoping to improve upon a 2018 second-round exit to Zverev and 2019 fourth-round loss to Roger Federer at the Masters 1000 event, has been drawn to meet Sam Querrey or Yen-Hsun Lu in the second round. The Russian has gotten off to a 14-2 start on the season, which includes the ATP Cup title, an Australian Open final appearance (l. to Djokovic) and the Open 13 Provence crown (d. Herbert). Medvedev could meet No. 11 seed Auger-Aliassime or 2018 champion and No. 18 seed John Isner in the quarter-finals, with a potential 10th ATP Head2Head meeting against Zverev in the semi-finals.
Medvedev has won his past three matches against Zverev, including wins at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he captured his third Masters 1000 crown, and at the Nitto ATP Finals in November 2020. Six weeks ago, Medvedev also recorded a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over the German at the ATP Cup in Melbourne.
Former World No. 1 Andy Murray, the 2009 and 2013 titlist, is also a dangerous contender in Medvedev’s quarter and the British wild card begins his quest against Lloyd Harris, last week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships finalist. Murray, who is competing at his first event since last month’s ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, could then meet seventh-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round.
Third seed Zverev, a winner of three Masters 1000 crowns from seven finals, may face 17-year-old #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz for the second week running, or Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland in the second round. Zverev, who captured his 14th ATP Tour title on Saturday at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Tsitsipas), beat Alcaraz 6-3, 6-1 in Acapulco and afterward predicted that the teenager would be in the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings by 2024. Nikoloz Basilashvili, the No. 27 seed and recent Qatar ExxonMobil Open winner in Doha, could face Zverev in the third round.
Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas may need to overcome the likes of Andrey Rublev, Diego Schwartzman, Denis Shapovalov or last week’s Dubai titlist Aslan Karatsev in the bottom half of the draw if he is to appear in his third Masters 1000 final (after 2018 Rogers Cup and 2019 Mutua Madrid Open). Tsitsipas opens his campaign against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson or Thiago Monteiro of Brazil, prior to a potential third-round clash against Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Fourth seed Rublev, who saw his 23-match ATP 500-level winning streak end at the hands of Karatsev in the Dubai semi-finals, could meet his compatriot in Miami quarter-finals. Karatsev, the No. 17 seed, who beat Rublev 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in Dubai on Friday last week, is set to make his Masters 1000 debut against Kazahstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin or British wild card Jack Draper, and may meet No. 10 seed Fabio Fognini in the third round. Rublev, meanwhile, will be attempting to better his Miami-best third-round exit in 2019.
The Russian, who joined Medvedev and 27-year-old Karatsev to win the ATP Cup last month, will start his campaign against Spain’s Pedro Martinez or Tennys Sandgren of the United States. Incredibly, Rublev may then face Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics for the third time in four weeks. Rublev beat Fucsovics in the Rotterdam final, received a walkover against the Hungarian in the Doha quarter-finals and also won their Dubai quarter-final last week. Fifth seed Schwartzman, Fognini or No. 17 seed Karatsev could be a potential quarter-final opponent for Rublev.
Jannik Sinner, the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals champion and No. 21 seed, will first face French wild card Hugo Gaston or Germany’s Dominik Koepfer, who rose 17 places to a career-high No. 54 in the latest FedEx ATP Rankings. From there, Sinner could meet No. 14 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia. #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who broke into the Top 100 for the first time on Monday after his Acapulco semi-final run, will make his Miami debut against American wild card Michael Mmoh.