Camila Giorgi battled past Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-4) in a marathon match to reach the second round at the Miami Open. 

Giorgi earned an early break to open up a 3-0 lead in the opening set, but she did not convert three double break in the fourth game. Giorgi saved a break point in the seventh game to build up a 5-2 lead. Kanepi broke back in the ninth game to draw level and held serve to draw level to 5-5. Kanepi saved a break point in the 12^th game to hold serve forcing the first set to the tie-break. Giorgi went down 2-3 but she won five of the next six points to clinch the first set 7-4. 

Giorgi went up an early break in the first game of the second set and saved two break points to hold serve in the sixth game for 4-2. Kanepi broke back in the eighth game to draw level to draw level to 4-4. Giorgi saved a set point in the 12^th game to send the second set to another tie-break. Kanepi won the final three points to take the tie-break 7-4. 

Giorgi earned a double break to race out to a 5-0 lead. Kanepi pulled both break points and saved a second match point to draw level to 5-5. Giorgi earned two mini-breaks to clinch the tie-break 7-4. 

Romania’s Irina Camelia Begu came back from 1-5 down in the second set and saved five set points to beat reigning US Open junior champion Alexandra Eala 6-2 7-5 in 1 hour and 51 minutes. 

Begu went down an early break in the first set to trail 0-2, but she came back by winning six consecutive games to clinch the first set 6-2. 

Eala went up an early break to take a 2-0 lead, but Begu broke straight back at love in the third game. Eala won three consecutive games with two breaks of serve to earn her first set point serving at 5-1, but Begu pulled one break back for 3-5 with a forehand winner into the corner. Begu converted her fifth break point in a eight-deuce ninth game for 4-5. The Romanian earned her third break and completed her come-back by winning her sixth consecutive game from 1-5 down to close out the second set 7-5. 

Wang Xiyu edged past 15-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova 6-0 7-5 in 1 hor and 51 minutes. Wang raced out to a 6-0 3-0 lead with four breaks of serve, but she held off a come-back from Fruhvirtova, who pulled back on serve to draw level to 3-3. Both players went on serve until the 12^thgame, when Wang earned her decisive break on her first match point with a forehand winner to seal the second set 7-5. 

This year’s Austin champion Marta Kostyuk beat Hobart finalist Martina Cocciaretto 6-3 6-2. Kostyuk earned her fourth break point to take a 3-1 lead and saved three break points in the seventh game to win the first set 6-3. Kostyuk broke twice in the third and seventh games to win the second set 6-2. 

Mirjam Bjorklund came back from one set down to beat Jasmine Paolini 4-6 6-4 6-4. Paolini went up a 3-1 40-15 in the third set, but Kostyuk broke back in the fifth game. Bjorklund earned her second break and saved two break-back points to close out with a hold serve at deuce. 

 Anna Kalinskaya came back from a break down in the first set to beat Andorran 17-year-old player Victoria Jimenez 6-4 6-2 setting up a second round match against last week’s Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina. 

David Ferrer, former Spanish tennis star and tournament director of the Barcelona Open, announced that four of the top 5 players in the ATP Ranking and eight of the top 15 players will play at the ATP 500 tournament at the Conte de Godò in Barcelona from 15 to 23 April 2023. 

Danil Medvedev is the last minute addition to the star-studded line-up and will join a field, that already features world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz, 12-time Barcelona Open champion Rafael Nadal, two-time finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year’s Roland Garros and US Open finalist Casper Ruud and this year’s Indian Wells semifinalist and Rotterdam finalist Jannik Sinner. In last year’s edition of the Barcelona Open Alcaraz beat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex De Minaur before winning the title match against Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3 6-2. 

“Players have a cost, but they want to come, and the cost is lower than in other tournaments with less history than Barcelona. I have experienced this as a player. We are keeping the invitation in the case another top player comes along. There are impossibilities because in the same week the tournaments of Banja Luka and Munich, but we have Carlos Alcaraz, the future of tennis”, said Ferrer. 

Medvedev won three consecutive titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and finished runner-up to Alcaraz in last weekend’s final at Indian Wells. Medvedev lost his first match after a winning streak of 19 consecutive matches. 

“It was not easy to have Medvedev because we almost closed. The tournament made a great effort but it also speaks highly of him that he wanted to go when he won everything”, said David Ferrer. 

Nadal is planning to make his return for the clay tournaments in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. The Spanish tennis legend has been sidelined for two months after hurting his left hip during his second round defeat to Mackenzie McDonald. Nadal has been forced to withdraw from three tournaments in Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. “Rafa is already doing blocks of five days of training. I wish him the best season on clay”, said Ferrer.

Danil Medvedev saw his 19-match winning streak broken when he was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in last Sunday’s Indian Wells final, but the Russian player is very confident after a successful start to his 2023 season. Medvedev won three consecutive ATP Tour titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. The Russian achieved the best result of his career in Indian Wells where he had not gone beyond the quarter finals in his previous appearances in the Californian tournament. In the Californian desert he reached the final of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time since he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Bercy Rolex Masters in 2021. 

“I am disappointed with the result, but the week was amazing. I am just happy and proud to reach the final in Indian Wells, because it’s a clay court on hard court. That’s a good result for me. Answering all these questions, I feel pretty well. I won three tournaments. I managed to make my best result in Indian Wells, where I could not make the quarter finals before, and already my second match was three-setter”,said Medvedev. 

Medvedev has moved up to number 5 in the ATP Ranking. The Russian player has reached the quarter finals in each of the past editions of the Miami Open and will try to do even better this year. 

“A lot of points. A lot of things to see in the season. I started it really well. I have already made more points than last year at that point. I see only good things, and I am looking forward to Miami”. 

Medvedev said that he has taken the positives from his defeat against Alcaraz last Sunday. 

“I think I will get over this defeat very quickly. It depends on how many finals you lost in a row, what were your previous results. Sometimes how you are feeling in life right now. A lot of positives. I will be forever disappointed that I did not win the final, but I can laugh already and whatever, I am going to try to win the next one or win Indian Wells next year”. 

In Indian Wells Medvedev missed his chance to win his fifth ATP Masters 1000 title and tie his career-long winning streak of 20 consecutive matches. Medvedev was aiming to become the first male player to win four titles in five weeks since Andy Murray in 2016. 

“I am one win away from my record. That’s actually disappointing. This would be cool to try to beat it and maybe try to prolong it as long as possible. It’s great to have these streaks. I am really disappointed that it ended, but I have a lot of confidence from this streak. Because last year, that’s what I was missing, these streaks. I was doing finals sometimes, semifinals in Cincinnati, kind of playing good but not playing well in the semifinals. I managed to win 19 matches in a row. I am proud of it, and now it’s time to try to build a new streak. There is no other way in tennis”, 

Medvedev had to overcome many hurdles en route to reach the Indian Wells final. He rolled his ankle in his fourth-round win over Alexander Zverev and hurt his thumb in his quarter final win against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. 

“I had a pretty toxic relationship here with the courts, a love-hate relationship, so I would like to thank the court. I only played on this court. I gave it a hard time, so it gave me a hard time also. I rolled the ankle, the thumb, but it gave me the chance to finish the tournament. Thanks a lot to this court, I will definitely be back. I really love this tournament. I will be happy to come back many more years to come and hopefully I can start to love this court and Indian Wells together. I don’t like to lose, but today was unfortunately pretty easy. I hope you still enjoyed it”. 

Alcaraz won three Masters 1000 finals in Miami and Madrid in 2022 and Indian Wells 2023. 

“I would like to congratulate Carlos. You already have amazing achievements in your career and I am sure many more to come. Today is one more of them, winning in Indian Wells. I also of it, maybe next time you will give me the chance. Congrats to you and you team. You are the most respectful player on Tour. You probably say hi to 300 people a day. I have rarely seen it”

Medvedev admitted after the Indian Wells final that he would have played on a different court, 

“Alcaraz is playing good. I feel like he was serving well today. Serve and volley was good. It’s never easy to finish a match, especially a final. I was thinking about my match with Novak in the US Open, and try to do the same, put pressure on him. I made a very good return on his serve and volley, sliding forehand volley dropshot. It’s not easy to play him. I would definitely love to play against him on another surface, like maybe a little bit faster hard courts to see if I could do better. I don’t know if it’s his game that did not let me play my best level or just, for whatever reason, I did not play my best level. Mentally I was ready for the match. I don’t feel I took it too easy before the match. I was ready for a fight. I knew that I have a tough opponent on the other side. He played well. Good dropshots in good moments, some good moments to break me”, said Medvedev.