Daniil Medvedev’s defeat on Thursday in the quarterfinals against reigning tournament champion Hubert Hurkacz confirmed that none of the top five seeds at the Miami Masters 1,000 will make it to the semifinals this year. The Pole will play this Friday (01:00, #Vamos) against Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Miomir Kecmanovic, for a place in the final. The other crossing will be disputed from 19:00 by Casper Ruud and Francisco Cerúndolo, the great surprise of the tournament.
Medvedev, the main favorite, fell 7-6 (7) and 6-3 and lost the opportunity to recover the world number one that Novak Djokovic rescued two weeks ago without the need to play, when Gael Monfils beat him in the Indian Wells quarterfinals. Although he is 10 points behind, it will not be easy for the Muscovite to rise to the throne again in the clay campaign, a surface that he is bad at and on which the Serb will be able to play. Before Medvedev, Zverev, second seeded, had said goodbye in the quarterfinals after losing against Ruud (6-3, 1-3 and 6-3); the third, Stefanos Tsitsipas, succumbed to Alcaraz in the round of 16; the fourth, Berrettini, left due to injury shortly before the start of the tournament (he underwent surgery on his right hand this week in Barcelona); and the fifth, Rublev, said goodbye to Kyrgios in the second round. Ruud (6th) and Hurkacz (10th) are the only top-10 who have reached the penultimate round.
The presence of Alcaraz is not a surprise, because the 18-year-old Murcian comes from being a semifinalist and pushing Rafa Nadal to the limit in Indian Wells. In addition, it is at a stratospheric level. Yes it is that of the rival he had to face in the quarterfinals for a place among the top four, Kecmanovic. The Serbian (48th) eliminated Taylor Fritz, brand new winner at the BNP Paribas Open after taking down Sock, Auger-Aliassime and Korda. Although Francisco Cerúndolo’s performance draws even more attention, since the Argentine, 103rd in the world, had not won an ATP hard court match until this tournament and was fortunate that Jannik Sinner (11th) retired when playing against him due to blisters. However, he had previously eliminated Griekspoor, Opelka, Monfils and Tiafoe, tennis players with a higher ranking than him. In fact, the native of Buenos Aires is the semifinalist with the lowest ranking in the history of the tournament. “I have never played against him and, to be honest, I have not seen him too much. We are the same age and when we were juniors nobody knew him, he played very few tournaments.”Ruud acknowledged when he learned that his next rival would be Cerúndolo, who has a younger brother, Juan Manuel, who reached the second round. “I have a dream: to be top-10. I work to be there. What is happening this week is going to change many things and I hope to be in the future,” says Francisco.
Rejuvenation
Another fact that demonstrates the change in trend that tennis is experiencing this year, with Djokovic’s problems competing due to his refusal to get vaccinated, Roger Federer’s prolonged absence and Rafa Nadal’s latest ailment after starring in the best start of the course of his career with three titles and 20 consecutive victories (until he gave in already injured against Fritz in the California desert), is that the average age of the Miami quarterfinalists did not exceed 26 years. Alcaraz (18), Sinner (20), Kecmanovic (22), Cerúndolo (23) and Ruud (23) contributed to reducing the figure. Above, Zverev (24), Hurkacz (25) and Medvedev (26) as ‘veterans’.