Wednesday Preview: Tiafoe Leads Seven Americans In Miami; Alcaraz Makes Debut
Seven Americans feature on Wednesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau, with Frances Tiafoe, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson playing their first-round matches on Grandstand. #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, 17, will be making his ATP Masters 1000 tournament debut, while 39-year-old compatriot Feliciano Lopez is set to make his 18th main draw appearance.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Former World No. 11 Querrey, who has played in Miami every year since his debut in 2006, starts men’s action on the main show court, where he will look to extend his perfect 3-0 ATP Head2Head record against Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei. While Johnson tackles Yannick Hanfmann of Germany for the first time, Tiafoe, the 2019 Miami quarter-finalist, will aim to repeat last month’s Australian Open win over Italian Stefano Travaglia in the fifth match on Grandstand.
Lopez, the oldest player in the Miami draw, meets Singapore Tennis Open titlist Alexei Popyrin of Australia on Court 1, but there will be plenty of focus on the night match at 7pm. World No. 132 Alcaraz, who made his Grand Slam debut last month, plays 21-year-old Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, who broke into the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings earlier this season.
South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, who lost to Aslan Karatsev in last week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final, will look to extend his run of good form against American qualifier Emilio Nava in the second match on Court 2. Dominik Koepfer, who is competing at a career-high No. 54 after reaching last week’s Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC semi-finals (l. to Zverev), also challenges French wild Hugo Gaston on Court 2.
Mischa Zverev, who is helping as part of his brother Alexander Zverev’s coaching team, qualified for the Masters 1000 event and plays Australia’s James Duckworth third on Court 1, while Open 13 Provence runner-up Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who will partner Nicolas Mahut this week in the doubles draw, faces Pedro Sousa of Portugal first on Court 4.
Watch Live | View TV Schedule
SCHEDULE – WEDNESDAY, 24 MARCH 2020
GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
WTA MATCH
S. Querrey (USA) vs [PR] Y. Lu (TPE)
S. Johnson (USA) vs Y. Hanfmann (GER)
Not Before 7:00 pm
WTA MATCH
Not Before 8:30 pm
F. Tiafoe (USA) vs S. Travaglia (ITA)
COURT 1 start 11:00 am
F. Lopez (ESP) vs A. Popyrin (AUS)
M. Giron (USA) vs T. Paul (USA)
J. Duckworth (AUS) vs [Q] M. Zverev (GER)
V. Pospisil (CAN) vs [Q] M. McDonald (USA)
Not Before 7:00 pm
[WC] C. Alcaraz (ESP) vs E. Ruusuvuori (FIN)
COURT 2 start 11:00 am
C. Norrie (GBR) vs Y. Nishioka (JPN)
[WC] H. Gaston (FRA) vs D. Koepfer (GER)
[LL] F. Gaio (ITA) vs R. Berankis (LTU)
L. Harris (RSA) vs [Q] E. Nava (USA)
J. Vesely (CZE) vs L. Djere (SRB)
COURT 4 start 11:00 am
P. Herbert (FRA) vs P. Sousa (POR)
[Q] A. Tabilo (CHI) vs M. Ymer (SWE)
[Q] E. Escobedo (USA) vs [Q] P. Lorenzi (ITA)