Internazionali d’Italia Day 6 Preview: The Men’s & Women’s Match of the Day - UBITENNIS
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Internazionali d’Italia Day 6 Preview: The Men’s & Women’s Match of the Day

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Court Centrale will not be as empty starting on Sunday, with 1,000 tickets to be sold for the semifinals and finals (internazionalibnlditalia.com)

It’s quarterfinal day in Rome, and many Roland Garros favorites are gaining momentum just eight days prior to the next Major.

On the men’s side, a Nadal/Djokovic final is starting to feel inevitable.  They’ve played in the championship match here five times before, and are a combined 44-3 against the other six men still alive in the draw.  But in an unpredictable 2020, the script has rarely unfolded as anticipated.  The top three remaining women’s seeds all have previous success at this event, though other strong contenders stand in their way.  That includes a pair of two-time Major champions who are playing great tennis, though only one of those women will advance to the semifinals.

Karolina Pliskova (2) vs. Elise Mertens (11)

These are two of the WTA’s best players yet to win a Major.  Pliskova came extremely close to doing so four years ago at the US Open, where she defeated both Williams sisters before falling to Angelique Kerber in the final.  Karolina is yet to return to a championship match, though she has accumulated 16 titles on the WTA tour, including this event last year.  Mertens has not reached a Major final, and only owns five tour titles, but no one has more WTA wins this year.  Elise is 26-9 in 2020, and has reached the quarterfinals or better of every tournament she’s played since the restart last month.  Even though these are two of the WTA’s most winningest players over the last few years, they’ve surprisingly only met once.  That was last year on the grass of Eastbourne, with Pliskova dropping just three games.  Both women have comfortably advanced to this stage without losing a set, or even playing a tiebreak.  Pliskova possesses more success in the latter stages of big tournaments like this, and can better control her destiny.  She’s consistently one of the WTA’s ace leaders and biggest ball strikers.  But Mertens is the player with more momentum right now, earning 15 match wins over the last five weeks.  Her guile and variety may be enough to defuse the power of the defending champion.

Rafael Nadal (2) vs. Diego Schwartzman (8)

Rafa and Diego have provided some grueling, entertaining encounters in the past.  At both the 2018 Australian and French Opens, they played four-setters that lasted nearly four hours.  And while Nadal is 63-6 at this event, half of his losses have come in this round.  He lost in the quarters three straight years from 2015-2017.  The bad news for Diego?  As enjoyable as their rallies can be, he’s 0-9 lifetime against the King of Clay.  And those two four-setters from 2018 are the only times Schwartzman has taken a set off Nadal.  Despite a six-month layoff before this event, Rafa has shown no rust, losing only six games over four sets.  So while Diego can push Rafa more than most others, a Nadal loss would be quite the shocker.

Other Notable Matches on Day 6:

Garbine Muguruza (9) vs. Victoria Azarenka (SE).  Muguruza already ousted Sloane Stephens, Coco Gauff, and Johanna Konta this week.  Azarenka is now 14-1 since the Western & Southern Open began.  Vika leads their head-to-head 2-1, which includes a victory at this event a year ago.  However, two of their three matches have ended in retirements.

Four-time Rome champion Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Dominik Koepfer (Q),a 26-year-old lefty who has won six matches over the last seven days.

Simona Halep (1) vs. Yulia Putintseva.  Their only previous meeting was at this year’s Australian Open, with Halep prevailing 6-1, 6-4.  Putintseva came back from a set and 5-2 down yesterday against Elena Rybakina.

In what should be a fun battle between two shotmakers, Denis Shapovalov (12) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (15).  Grigor is 2-0 against Denis, though they’ve never played on clay.

Two-time Rome champion Elina Svitolina (4) vs. Marketa Vondrousova (12), who was a surprise finalist at last year’s Roland Garros.  This is the 21-year-old’s best result since that time, as a left wrist injury sidelined the lefty for six months.

Italy’s No.1 and last man standing Matteo Berrettini (4) vs. Casper Ruud.  This is a rematch from two weeks ago at the US Open, when Berrettini advanced in straight sets.  But when they played on the clay of Paris last year, Ruud won in straights.

Full order of play is here.

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Indian Wells Daily Preview: The Championship Matches in Men’s and Women’s Singles

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Iga Swiatek during Friday’s semifinals (twitter.com/BNPPARIBASOPEN)

It’s championship Sunday in tennis paradise, featuring rematches from recent finals in the desert.

In the women’s singles championship match, it’s a rematch from the 2022 final, as World No.1 Iga Swiatek faces a rejuvenated Maria Sakkari.  And the men’s singles championship match is a rematch from just a year ago, as Carlos Alcaraz takes on Daniil Medvedev.  Will Iga and Carlitos become multi-time champions of this event, or will Maria and Daniil win their first Indian Wells titles?


Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Maria Sakkari (9) – 11:00am on Stadium 1

This is yet another tournament during which Swiatek has gone completely unchallenged.  She has not dropped a set, and lost only 17 games through nine completed sets.  Iga is 7-2 in WTA 1000 finals, and an excellent 18-4 in tour finals overall.

By contrast, four out of Sakkari’s five matches this fortnight have gone three sets, including the last two against top Americans Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro.  Friday’s night’s semifinal against Gauff was a dramatic, extended affair, which went late into the evening due to a long rain delay in the desert.  Playing such a draining contest, and then coming back just 36 hours later to play at 11:00am in the morning, with be an extremely challenging turnaround for Maria.

After a subpar 2023 season, Sakkari is back to playing her best tennis, in the first tournament of the working relationship with her new coach, David Witt.  She is 1-2 in WTA 1000 finals, though she just won her first title at this level six months ago in Guadalajara.  But Maria is a meek 2-7 in tour finals, and as per Tennis Abstract, is just 3-7 against top 10 opposition within the last year.

Sakkari claimed their first two meetings, back in 2021 before Swiatek rose to the top of the sport.  The last three have all gone to Iga, with the most recent being the 2022 final at this same event.  All five of their matches have been straight-setters.  So while this is Maria’s favorite event, and her new coach has helped restore her confidence, Iga remains a clear favorite to win her second title in Indian Wells.


Daniil Medvedev (4) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2)  – Not Before 2:00pm on Stadium 1

Despite playing in a location where “it never rains,” both the men’s and women’s semifinals suffered from severe rain delays, leading to the men’s semis finishing much later on Saturday than expected.  And both went three sets, so neither Alcaraz nor Medvedev will be fully fresh on Sunday.  Carlitos came back from a set down to hand Jannik Sinner his first defeat of the year, while Daniil came from a set down to oust American Tommy Paul.

In the championship here a year ago, Alcaraz comfortably prevailed against a depleted Medvedev, who had won 19 matches in the month leading up to that final.  They would go on to play three more times in 2023, with Carlitos taking three of four.  However, Daniil was able to overcome the Spaniard in the US Open semifinals, winning 6-3 in the fourth.  Overall Alcaraz is 3-2 against Medvedev.

Carlitos has not been the same player since losing the near four-hour final last summer in Cincinnati to Novak Djokovic.  But his victory over Sinner on Saturday felt significant, and it brought him to his first final since that one in Cincinnati. 

Alcaraz is 12-4 in ATP finals, and 4-1 at this level.  Medvedev is 20-17 in ATP finals, and 6-3 in Masters finals.  Hard courts easily remain Daniil’s strongest surface, though he made it painfully clear here a year ago that the slower-playing courts in Indian Wells are not to his liking.  And coming off an inspiring effort to defeat Sinner, the ATP’s best player of the last six months, Carlitos should be favored to become the first man to defend this title since Djokovic in 2016.


Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.

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Indian Wells Daily Preview: Alcaraz and Sinner Reignite an Electrifying Rivalry in the Semifinals

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Jannik Sinner during Thursday’s quarterfinals (twitter.com/BNPPARIBASOPEN)

The men’s singles semifinals will be played on Saturday, as will the women’s doubles championship match.

18 months ago at the US Open, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner contested one of the best matches in recent memory.  After five hours and 15 minutes of scintillating rallies, Alcaraz would prevail 6-3 in the fifth, and go on to claim his first Major a few days later.  On Saturday, they meet for the eighth time at tour level, in the most anticipated semifinal of the fortnight.

The other men’s singles semifinal sees last year’s runner-up, Daniil Medvedev, take on the No.2-ranked American, Tommy Paul.

Plus, the women’s doubles final features two of the top three seeds.  At 11:00am local time, it will be Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens (1) vs. Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova (3).  At January’s Australian Open, Su-Wei and Mertens defeated Hunter and Siniakova in the semifinals, before going on to win the title.


Jannik Sinner (3) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2) – Not Before 1:30pm on Stadium 1

Sinner leads their head-to-head 4-3, and 3-2 on hard courts.  They’ve met three times since the aforementioned 2022 US Open epic, including in the same round of this same event a year ago, when Alcaraz prevailed in straight sets.  Two weeks later in the semis of Miami, Jannik claimed a three-hour three-setter.  And six months ago in Beijing, the Italian won in straights.

These two phenomenal players have achieved contrasting results across the past six months.  Sinner is now 36-2 since last summer’s US Open, with four singles titles.  He also propelled Italy to the Davis Cup title.  Jannik has beaten Novak Djokovic three times during this span, and also achieved his first Major championship.  However, within that same time, Alcaraz has reached no tournament finals, and is 0-4 in his last four semifinals.

Jannik is an undefeated 16-0 in 2024, and has not dropped a set in Indian Wells.  Carlitos is 10-3 this season, and has taken eight consecutive sets after losing the first set he played here last week.  Based on recent form, Sinner is a considerable favorite to advance to his first championship match in the desert.  And in doing so, he would take the No.2 ranking away from Alcaraz, reaching a new career-high.


Tommy Paul (17) vs. Daniil Medvedev (4) – Last on Stadium 1

Medvedev is 13-2 on the year, and has now appeared in the semifinals in all three tournaments he’s played this season.  He dropped one set earlier in the event, to Sebastian Korda.  Daniil is vying for his second consecutive final in Indian Wells, and his first Masters 1000 final since surprisingly winning a clay court title almost a year ago in Rome.

This is a second semifinal at this level for Paul, after first achieving this feat last summer in Canada, where he upset Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.  The 26-year-old American had a poor ending to his 2023 season, going 6-8, but is now 14-4 in 2024 after reaching back-to-back finals last month in Dallas and Delray Beach.  Like Daniil, Tommy has lost just one set this fortnight, in the quarterfinals to Casper Ruud.

Paul is extremely quick around the court, and likes to use his forehand to end points.  Yet he has an 0-2 record against Medvedev, which includes a 6-2, 6-1 loss six months ago in Beijing.  While the crowd will be solidly behind Tommy, Daniil’s hard court abilities are well-established, and the fourth seed should be favored on Saturday.


Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.

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Novak Djokovic Announces Withdrawal From Miami Open

Novak Djokovic will not be playing the Miami Open after losing early in Indian Wells.

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(@BNPPARIBASOPEN - Twitter)

Novak Djokovic has announced that he has withdrawn from the second Masters 1000 of the season in Miami.

The news comes after the world number one lost in the third round of Indian Wells to lucky loser Luca Nardi.

Many people expected Djokovic to play in Miami given the Serb’s result in California.

However that appears not to be the case as Djokovic has announce on X that he has withdrawn from the tournament.

This means for the second time in three years Djokovic will enter the clay court season without winning a trophy.

The Serb will look to change that stat when he plays the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters which starts on the 7th of April.

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