Interesting Miami Matches

There were three interesting matches on the men’s side, all involving Roger Federer.  The contests were not important because of Federer, whose awesome play continues, but rather, because of performances of his opponents.  The matches involved:

1) Francis Tiafoe.  The young American lost to Fed in straight sets, but looked very good.  He served consistently in the low 130’s, handled Federer’s vexing short slices very well, and moved quite well.  Serving at 1-2, 0-40 in the second set, Tiafoe began to exhibit some exertional grunting, indicative of physical and perhaps psychological fatigue.  So he went down, but if he keeps playing the way he did in this match, he could move up significantly in the rankings.

2) Juan Martin del Potro.  Delpo also lost in straight sets, but definitely played top 10 tennis.  He served extremely well, hit his forehand very hard as usual, and came over his backhand on almost every shot.  If he stays healthy he will be in the top 10 again, maybe even this year.

3) Roberto Bautista Agut.  Again, a straight set loss to Roger, but in two tiebreak sets.  Agut has lost only a few matches this year, and played Roger very tough.  Although he made a high percentage of first serves, Agut didn’t really get a lot of free points on serve.  However, his movement and tactical skills were really outstanding.  He looked like the second best Spaniard in the world to me.

Other notable results:

Alex Zverev came from behind to knock top seeded Stan Wawrinka (apparently pronounced “ouarinka”, so I’m trying to get used to it) out of the tournament.  A big win there. 

Nick Kyrgios also looked almost like an adult as he continued to cruise through the tournament.  He has beaten Karlovic and David Goffin, who is never an easy out.  Is Kyrgios coming into his own?

Raonic is out again with another muscle problem, this time a hamstring.  He’s a big guy who puts a lot of stress on those leg muscles when he moves fast and changes direction on the court.  Let’s hope he figures out a well to get healthy and stay that way.