MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Indian Wells champion and second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz started his Miami Open marketing campaign with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 victory over fellow Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena on Saturday night time.
The 20-year-old Alcaraz, who’s the reigning Wimbledon champion, dominated the match from begin to end together with his spectacular pace and agility. He saved all three break factors he confronted to select up his seventh straight win.
Jannik Sinner superior to the third spherical with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over fellow Italian Andrea Vavassori. The third-ranked Sinner, the Australian Open champion and final yr’s Miami Open runner-up, needed to wait in a single day to clinch the opening victory at Miami after rain pressured a suspension of the match on Friday with Sinner main 3-2.
“I feel it is loads of distinction between right here and wherever else,” Sinner mentioned. “Right here perhaps the courtroom fits me a bit bit higher as a result of the ball just isn’t that bouncy. However I really feel simply mentally fairly free to play, and I feel that is most necessary.”
Andy Murray superior to the third spherical with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Twenty ninth-ranked Tomas Martin Etcheverry. That match was additionally suspended on Friday due to rain. Murray, who received the Miami title in 2009 and 2013, snapped a nine-match shedding streak in opposition to prime 50 gamers with the win and has now performed 995 profession tour-level matches.
“My physique feels that,” mentioned Murray, who turns 37 in Could, “It seems like I’ve performed a thousand. I’ve clearly been on the tour a very long time. My first matches on tour have been simply as I turned 18 years previous … It has been a protracted profession however an incredible profession.”
In girls’s play, top-ranked Iga Świątek, coming off an Indian Wells title final week, defeated Camila Giorgi 6-1, 6-1 in simply over an hour. The victory gave Świątek 81 wins within the first 100 matches of her profession on the WTA-1000 degree. Solely Serena Williams (87) had extra wins in her first 100 matches at that degree.
Naomi Osaka continued her comeback journey by defeating Seventeenth-ranked Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6 (5). Osaka, who’s comng off a third-round loss at Indian Wells, now has two wins over prime 20 opponents in her final 4 matches.
“I undoubtedly do assume it was one in all my finest matches (of the yr), if not the most effective match,” Osaka mentioned. “However I additionally need myself to play higher and higher each match.”
A day after rain and wind delayed the beginning of play and suspended a number of matches, downpours once more pushed the beginning of Saturday’s matches again by practically three hours.
On a day with a number of upsets on the lads’s facet, Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild surprised American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4 to achieve the third spherical. Quite a few Brazilian followers have been in attendance to observe their compatriot play, and so they cheered so loudly that Fritz complained to the chair umpire.
Christopher O’Connell topped Twenty second-ranked Francis Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6; 14th-ranked Tommy Paul appeared to roll his left ankle within the second set of his match in opposition to Martin Damm Jr. and was pressured to retire; final yr’s Miami Open winner Daniil Medvedev superior, beating Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-2.
In different motion, fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula superior to the second spherical after Zhu Lin retired with an sickness whereas trailing 6-4, 4-1.
