ATP1000 Miami Open 2023

Seeding of players:-

1       Carlos  Alcaraz                                 7440    

2       Stefanos Tsitsipas                             5770

3       Casper Ruud                                    5005 

4      Danill Medvedev                             4510 

5      Felix Auger-Aliassime                      3415

6     Andrey Rublev                                   3390

7     Holger Rune                                      3370     

8     Hubert Hurkacz                                 3065

9    Taylor Fritz                                        2930             

10    Jannik Sinner                                   2790

11    Cameron Norrie                              2735

12    Frances Tiafoe                               2705

13    Alexander Zverev                           2580

14    Karen Khachanov                          2505

15     Alex de Minaur                             2085  

16    Tommy Paul                                  2045

17     Borna Coric                                  1905

18    Lorenzo Musetti                            1840

19    Matteo Berrettini                           1732

20   Alejandro Davidovich Fokina        1545

21   Grigor Dimitrov                            1450

22    Roberto Bautista-Agut                 1430

23    Daniel Evans                                1235

24    Denis Shapovalov                       1345

25    Francisco Cerundolo                   1140

26    Botic van de Zandschulp            1170

27    Sebastian Baez                            1170

28    Yoshihito Nishioka                      1144          

29    Miomir Kecmanovic                   1120

30    Maxime Cressy                           1016

 31   Diego Schwartzman                     990

32   Ben Shelton                                   989

After Round 3 the situation is as follows:

Seeded 1-10          -  4  players left

Seeded 11-20       -   1 player left

Seeded 21-32        -  1 player left

Unseeded Players     2 Players left

It is in fact lunacy to even try to make predictions on the match outcomes in Round 4 - there ahs been so many upsets in this tournament and further upsets today is a definite possibility,   4 top 10 seeded players are playing each other namely - 

*   Rublev (6) playing Sinner (10); and

*   Rune (7) playing Fritz (9)

Tsitsipas had some nightmare performances recently and he could lose against Khachanov taking that into account.   

The qualification tournaments will start today (24 matches)  and the final 12 matches to finalize the main draw will be played tomorrow .   Normally the main draw will be announced today or at the latest tomorrow.  

The women's draw was yesterday and the men's Main Draw is set for sometime today after which I will be able to update the seedings and the second round matches schedule.    

ROUND 2

Top Half of the Draw

1    Carlos Alcaraz                               vs      Facundo Bagnis

30   Maxime Cressy                             vs      Dusan Lajovic

20   Alejandro Davidovich Fokina       vs      Brandon Nakashima

16   Tommy Paul                                  vs       Marc-Andrea Huesler

9     Taylor Fritz                                    vs       Emileo Nava

24   Denis Shapovalov                          vs       Guido Pella

31   Diego Schwartzman                       vs      Yibing Wu

7     Holger Rune                                   vs       Marton Fucsovics

3     Casper Ruud                                  vs       Ilya Ivashka

26  Botic van de Zandschulp                vs       Alexei Popyrin

22   Roberto Bautista-Agut                   vs       Emil Vuusuvuori

13   Alexander Zverev                          vs       Taro Daniel

10   Jannik Sinner                                 vs        Laslo Djere

21   Grigor Dimitrov                             vs       Jan-Lennard Strruff

29   Miomir Kecmanovic                      vs       Ugo Humbert

6     Andrey Rublev                               vs        Jeffrey Wolf 

Bottom Half of the Draw

8     Hubert Hurkacz                              vs        Thanasi Kokkinakis

32   Ben Shelton                                    vs        Adrian Mannarino 

17   Borna Coric                                    vs        Christopher Eubanks

11    Cameroon Norrie                           vs        Gregoire Barrere

15    Alex de Minaur                              vs        Quentin Halys

19    Matteo Berrettini                            vs        Mackenzie McDonald

28    Yoshihito Nishioka                         vs        Alex Molcan

4      Danill Medvedev                            vs        Roberto Carballes Baena

5     Felix Auger-Aliassime                    vs         Thiago Monteiro

26   Francisco Cerundolo                       vs         Aleksandar Kovacevic

23    Daniel Evans                                  vs         Lorenzo Zonego

12    Frances Tiafoe                                vs          Yoshuke Watanuki

14     Karen Khachanov                          vs          Tomas Martin Etcheverry

18     Lorenzo Musetti                            vs          Jirri Lehecka

27     Sebastian Baez                              vs           Christian Garin

2        Stefanos Tsitsipas                         vs           Richard Gasquet    

The Qualification Round will be completed today and the Round 1 matches will be played tomorrow and Thursday.    Looks like the Round 2 matches will start on Friday - 24 March 2023.

According t the match schedules for today and tomorrow  the  -

*   the Top Half of the Draw  Round 1 matches will be played today; and

*   the Bottom Half of the Draw round 1 matches tomorrow.  

The Round 2 match schedule will be updated accordingly and the potential Round 3 matches will be identified once all Round 1 matches has been completed.     

ROUND 3

Top Half of the Draw

1    Carlos Alcaraz                               vs     Dusan Lajovic

16  Tommy Paul                                  vs      20   Alejandro Davidovich Fokina     

9     Taylor Fritz                                   vs     24   Denis Shapovalov

7     Holger Rune                                  vs    31   Diego Schwartzman

3     Casper Ruud                                 vs      26  Botic van de Zandschulp

Emil Vuusuvuori                                 vs      Taro Daniel

10   Jannik Sinner                                vs     21   Grigor Dimitrov

6     Andrey Rublev                              vs      29   Miomir Kecmanovic

Bottom Half of the Draw

8     Hubert Hurkacz                             vs      /Adrian Mannarino

Gregoire Barrere                                   vs       /Christopher Eubanks

Quentin Halys                                        vs       Mackenzie McDonald

4      Danill Medvedev                          vs        Alex Molcan

5     Felix Auger-Aliassime                  vs        26   Francisco Cerundolo

12    Frances Tiafoe                               vs        Lorenzo Zonego 

14     Karen Khachanov                         vs        Jirri Lehecka

2        Stefanos Tsitsipas                         vs      Christian Garin

Today is when the real competition in Miami starts.   16 seeded players in the Top Half of the Draw are playing 16 winners in Round 1 of the series.   The remainder of the Round 2 matches are played tomorrow in the Bottom half of the draw where the same situation will be found.   .    That means that over today and tomorrow half of the players in Round 2 will be eliminated.     In Indian Wells near to half of the seeded players lost their matches - will the same happen in Miami?         

ROUND 4

Top Half of the Draw

1    Carlos Alcara                            vs         16    Tommy Paul    

7     Holger Rune                            vs            9    Taylor Fritz

26  Botic van de Zandschulp          vs          Emil Vuusuvuori         

6     Andrey Rublev                         vs          10   Jannik Sinner

Bottom Half of the Draw  

Adrian Mannarino                          vs            Christofer Eubanks

4      Danill Medvedev                    vs            Quentin Halys

26    Francisco Cerundolo              vs            Lorenzo Zonego  

2       Stefanos Tsitsipas                  vs           14     Karen Khachanov

Unlike what happened in the Indian Wells tournament there was not many seeded players who lost their matches in the top half of the Draw - matter of fact only 3 seeded players have lost their matches in the Top Half of the Draw - the real upset was the loss of Zverev - who was a total disaster from a performance perspective.   The question is still - will Zverev recover from his injury last year or will he follow the Thiem example.    

With 2 seeded players in the Bottom half of the Draw still to play in Round 3  a total of 8 seeded players out of the 14 already played have lost their matches.    Some of the seeded players were bloody lucky to win.

In Round 3  there also one weird results as well.  With the Top half of the draw completed the fact is that Ruud got beaten by Van der Zandschulp means that the first top 10 seeded player is' gone.  There is only 1 unseeded player left in the said half of the draw left namely Vusuvuori,

It looks like the winner of the Rublev-Sinner match would have a clear run through to the semifinal.   Both are in good form - but Rublev is unpredictable and I think Siner may win that one.  

In respect of the Bottom Half of the Draw the opponent of Medvedev (Molcan) has withdrawn and he is  through to Round 4.  For the rest there were some real surprises like Auger-Aliassime and Hurkacz losing.   As a result Medvedev to proceed playing only against unceded players   

QUARTERFINALS

Top Half of the Draw

1    Carlos Alcaraz                                      vs     9   Taylor Fritz

10   Jannik Sinner                                      vs      Emil Vuusuvuori      

Bottom Half of the Draw

4      Danill Medvedev                                 vs     Christofer Eubanks  

14    Karen Khachanov                               vs    26   Francisco Cerundolo  

It will be extremely difficult t make any predictions on the matches to be played today in round 4 of  the tournaments in some cases even though players won their matches:-

Based on that  -

*   Carlos Alcaraz is the favorite to beat Paul;

*   Rune could beat Fritz;

*    Rublev has a 50% chance of beating Sinner -problem is on form Rublev should win - but we never know Rublev is going to turn up to play;

*    The unseeded Vuusuvuori should beat Van der Zandschulp;

*     Medvedev is playing the unseeded Halys and it should be a walk in the Park for him;

*    The hopeless Mannarino should beat the even worse  Eubanks

*    The unseeded Lorenso Sonego should beat Cerundolo

*     Tsitsipas was very lucky to beat Garin in Round 3 and Kachanov should be able to beat him, but he is always in the same boat as Rublev and it depends which Khachanov turns up to play,   

Roob left.

I told you about Rublev - he found ways of losing matches unique to him.   Double faults on break points are his specialty.      

Today he was just outplayed….as the commentator said, in the second set he really didn’t do anything wrong.

SEMIFINALS

1    Carlos Alcaraz                     vs     10   Jannik Sinner

4     Danill Medvedev                vs    14    Karen Khachanov  

FINAL

4     Danill Medvedev               vs           10   Jannik Sinner  

I watched the match between Alcaraz and Fritz and the way Alcaraz demolished Fritz indicate that he would beat Sinner as well.    The bookmakers agreed with that comment as well.   The same applies to the other semi as well - although not as clear as the Alcaraz- Sinner match.   it is quite likely that there m ay be another Alcaraz-Medvedev final looming.        

Congrats to Medvedev un winning his 4th tournament this year.