Australian Open Daily Preview: Daniil Medvedev Plays Nick Kyrgios in the Second Round - UBITENNIS
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Australian Open Daily Preview: Daniil Medvedev Plays Nick Kyrgios in the Second Round

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Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Cup (twitter.com/AustralianOpen)

Two players who have been labeled as tennis’ bad boys will meet on Thursday in Melbourne.  But it is unfair to lump them together.  One is the reigning US Open champion and on the brink of becoming the No.1 player in the world.  The other hasn’t reached a Major quarterfinal in seven years, and is currently ranked outside the top 100.  However, Nick Kyrgios often plays his best tennis at his home country’s biggest tournament.  And he has a history of upsetting top players like Daniil Medvedev.

Each day this preview will highlight the five most intriguing matchups, while outlining the other notable matches on the schedule.   Thursday’s play will begin at 11:00am local time.


Garbine Muguruza (3) vs. Alize Cornet – 11:00am on Rod Laver Arena

Nearly five years after her last Major title, is Muguruza ready to win another?  She’s coming off the third biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals, and was the runner-up in Melbourne two years ago.  But Cornet is far from an easy out.  The Frenchwoman has scored many upsets over top players throughout her career, most notably over Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2014.  And last June on grass in Berlin, Cornet defeated Muguruza in a third set tiebreak.  However, Muguruza’s dictating power should allow her to avenge that loss on Thursday.


Anett Kontaveit (6) vs. Clara Tauson – 11:00am on Margaret Court Arena

Since hiring Dmitry Tursonov as her coach, Kontaveit has accumulated an astounding record of 33-5.  During that span, she’s earned four titles, reached the championship match at the WTA Finals, and nearly won another event last week in Sydney, losing to Barbora Krejcikova 14-12 in a third set tiebreak.  But Tauson could provide some legitimate resistance.  The 19-year-old from Denmark has been lauded by many as a future top player, and she advanced to three finals at multiple levels to close out 2021.  Three years ago, Clara was a junior champion in Melbourne.  Their first career meeting could be a tight one, though Kontaveit remains the favorite with her punishing groundstrokes and recent form.


Taylor Fritz (20) vs. Frances Tiafoe – Not Before 1:00pm on John Cain Arena

This is a tough second round draw for both Americans, who are not only close friends, but have also been playing some good tennis over the last few months.  Fritz reached the semifinals in Indian Wells, the final in St. Petersburg, and the quarters in Bercy.  And to start off 2022, he scored upset wins over Cam Norrie and Felix Auger-Aliassime at the ATP Cup.  Tiafoe scored a thrilling victory over Andrey Rublev at the US Open, and reached the final in Vienna.  However, Frances went 0-2 to begin the year, and required five sets to advance beyond the 198th-ranked player in the world on Tuesday.  With Fritz taking their last two encounters, I like his chances of making it three in a row.


Felix Auger-Aliassime (9) vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina – Third on Kia Arena

Based on his ATP Cup triumph, and reaching new heights at the last two Majors, much is expected of the 21-year-old Canadian.  But after securing the first set in his opening round, Felix would promptly drop seven straight games, complicating matters to where he was forced to come back from a two-sets-to-one deficit.  Falling behind against the 22-year-old Spaniard would be even more dangerous.  Alejandro easily advanced in straight sets on Tuesday, and debuted inside the top 32 last year thanks to some strong results on both clay and hard courts.  In their first career meeting, Auger-Aliassime should still be favored to advance, but not without an extended battle with a player who can often exhaust his opponents with his consistency and endurance.


Daniil Medvedev (2) vs. Nick Kyrgios – 7:00pm on Rod Laver Arena

No one has been playing better on hard courts than Medvedev, who has won 83 of his last 92 matches on this surface.  Meanwhile, Kyrgios has only played 16 singles matches in nearly two years, with an 8-8 record.  Yet Nick has remained a reliable source of dramatic matches at the Australian Open.  A year ago, he overcame Ugo Humbert 6-4 in the fifth.  And two years ago, he outlasted Karen Khachanov in fifth-set tiebreak.  However, those compelling victories occurred in his favorite slot: the night session on John Cain Arena.  This match will be on Rod Laver Arena, where he has not won a match since 2018.  And while Kyrgios is 2-0 lifetime against Medvedev, neither of those matches were best-of-five.  While I expect Nick will keep this competitive, with thorough inspiration fromd the Australian crowd, Medvedev’s defensive skills will likely prove to be too much.


Other Notable Matches on Thursday:

Aryna Sabalenka (2) vs. Xinyu Wang – Sabalenka overcame her recent service woes to win in three on Tuesday, and thanked Mark Philippoussis for his advice on her serve.  Xinyu is a 20-year-old from China who won her first main draw match at a Slam in the first round.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (10) vs. Sam Stosur (WC) – In her last singles event, Stosur delighted the Melbourne crowd on Tuesday by coming back from a set down to earn only her second win at this event since 2015.  Pavlyuchenkova has reached the quarterfinals here in three of the last five years, and won her opening round decisively, dropping only three games.  Stosur leads their head-to-head 5-4, though they haven’t played in nearly four years.

Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) vs. Sebastian Baez – Tsitsipas appeared unhampered by his recent elbow surgery on Tuesday, easily prevailing in straight sets.  Baez is a 21-year-old from Argentina who won a five-setter on the same day.

Andy Murray (WC) vs. Taro Daniel (Q) – What will Murray have left in the tank after his latest grueling contest at a Major?  He played for five sets and nearly four hours in the first round.  Daniel has won nine straight sets since qualifying began last week, and recently hired Sven Groeneveld as his coach.

Emma Raducanu (17) vs. Danka Kovinic – In the opening round, Raducanu rediscovered some of her magic from New York, taking out Sloane Stephens in three.  Kovinic is a 27-year-old from Montenegro who has never been beyond the second round at a Major.


Thursday’s 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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