Murray Advances Over Weary Berrettini As Miami Open Begins

Matteo Berrettini, Andy Murray, Miami Open
Andy Murray and Matteo Berrettini (photo: Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium)

MIAMI/WASHINGTON, March 21, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

The men’s singles main draw of the 39th edition of the Miami Open got underway Wednesday, with one of four former champions in the draw, Andy Murray of Great Britain, featured on Hard Rock Stadium.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, who Sunday evening captured his fifth ATP Masters 1000 title at the BNP Paribas in Indian Wells, Calif. for the second straight year, is the top seed in this year’s event, which runs through March 31. (World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia pulled out of the tournament last week.)

Alcaraz, who won the Miami Open in 2022, will attempt to become the first player since Roger Federer in 2017 to win the Sunshine Double. He begins his title quest later in the week against either No. 65 Aleksandar Vukic of Australia or No. 64 Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain, who play Thursday.

Defending champion and current World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev of Russia will attempt to defend a title for the first time in his career having won 20 tour-level titles in 20 different locations. He arrives in Miami after losing to Alcaraz in the Indian Wells final for the second consecutive time and is in search of his seventh ATP Masters 1000 title over the next 10 days of the south Florida event. Medvedev’s first opponent will be No. 86 Marton Fucsovics of Hungary.

Meanwhile, the No. 2 seed is current World No. 3 Jannik Sinner of Italy, lost in the Indian Wells semifinals to Alcaraz, which snapped his 19-match winning streak. He enters Miami with a 16-1 win-loss record this season. As a 19-year-old in 2021, Sinner became the Italian finalist in tournament history, before reaching the final again in 2023. His first opponent will be 148th-ranked Italian qualifier Andrea Vavassori.

Two-time Miami champ Murray guts out first-round win

Great Britain’s Andy Murray proved by the end of his two-hour 48-minute tussle with No.142 Matteo Berrettini of Italy that there’s “life in the old dog yet,” as he wrote on the camera lens at the conclusion of his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 first-round victory on Hard Rock Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

It was Murray’s 30th career Miami triumph – the third active player to achieve that plateau – and one well earned by the 36-year-old British great. He struck 30 winners – including nine aces – to 20 unforced errors, compared to 36 winners and 44 unforced errors by Berrettini, and outpointed him 100-90. It all added up to Murray’s fourth straight first-round win.

“It was obviously a great win for me,” said Murray in his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I started off a little bit slow, but I do think I played pretty well from the middle of the first set until the end of the match. I created a lot of opportunities and he was struggling for a little bit at the end of the second and beginning of the third. I capitalized on that and got off to a quick start in the third. I served it out well in the end.”

The 62nd-ranked Murray survived his second-longest match and rallied from a set down against Berrettini, appearing with a protected ranking of No. 74, who provided everyone with a scare when he appeared dizzy and nearly fainted while serving at 2-5 in the second set. The 27-year-old Italian, competing in his first tour-level event since last year’s US Open, was helped to his bench and his blood pressure was checked by a doctor before he was deemed able to resume play. Berrettini seemed to become dizzy and used his racquet to hold himself upright. At the time, the local temperature was 76 degrees Fahrenheit with 53 percent humidity.

Berrettini left the court after dropping the second set but returned and finished the match. In their most recent meeting, Murray defeated Berrettini in the first round of the 2023 Australian Open, a five-set victory that lasted more than four and a-half hours.

Next, Murray will attempt to garner back-to-back wins for the first time this season when he faces No. 29 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina later this week. Etcheverry beat Murray earlier this season at the Australian Open and has won two of their three career meetings.

Around the Miami Open

• Unseeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada, using a protected ranking (No. 27), improved to 5-1 in Miami Open opening rounds following his 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 victory over No. 75 Luciano Darderi of Italy in two hours and 27 minutes. The win was just the third of the season in 10 outings for the 126th-ranked Canadian lefty, while the loss spoiled Darderi’s ATP Masters 1000 debut.

Shapovalov struck 16 aces and hit 54 overall winners to 22 unforced errors. He won 77 percent of his first-serve points, and faced just one break point, converted four of 12 break-point chances and outpointed Darderi 119-106. Next, he will face No. 10 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

“[Coming back from injury] is definitely not easy,” Shapovalov said in an on-court interview with ATP Media after his victory. “I feel like I’m playing good tennis, especially in practice, but it’s not always the same in matches. I feel like I’ve had a lot of close battles and opportunities but haven’t always been able to close out all the matches. I feel like I’m right there, playing good tennis. But it’s frustrating. I feel like I could be doing better.”

• Playing in just his third ATP Masters 1000 event, 23-year-old Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic won his first-round match for the third time. On Wednesday afternoon, the 60th-ranked Machac defeated 16-year-old Darwin Blanch of the United States, who was making his ATP Tour debut, 6-4, 6-2, in an hour and 20 minutes.

Machac, who won on his third match point, hit 15 winners to 16 unforced errors, compared to 19 winners and 35 unforced errors for Blanch. He won 74 percent of his first-serve points, converted five of 11 break-point opportunities and outpointed the 1,034th-ranked American teenager, 69-54. Blanch was attempting to become the second youngest player to win an ATP Masters 1000 match since the series began in 1990.

• Other first round winners include: No. 38 Matteo Arnaldi of Italy, No. 42 Jack Draper of Great Britain, No. 50 Dominik Koepfer of Germany, No. 63 Flavio Cobolli of Italy, No. 66 Christopher O’Connell of Australia, No. 73 Alex Michelsen of the United States, 76th-ranked qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil and No. 77 Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.

Also, No. 80 Luca Van Assche of France, No. 86 Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, 124th-ranked wild card Juncheng “Jerry” Shang of China, 148th-ranked qualifier Andrea Vavassori of Italy, and 204th-ranked wild card Martin Damm of the United States.

Wednesday’s Miami Open results

Thursday’s Miami Open order of play

By the numbers

No. 1 American Taylor Fritz leads a tournament-high 13 U.S. men in the field with six of them seeded. Fritz is aiming to reach back-to-back Miami quarterfinals.

“Quotable …”

“He means a lot to me. Obviously, it’s great support when I have him in the box. His support is really special to me. It’s been a long path together; I think six years now. It’s been a long journey together. …

“We’ve done great work together. I spend a lot of time with him at tournaments and [outside] the tournaments as well. We have a really good relationship in the professional part, but the personal part as well I’ve learned a lot from him.”

— Carlos Alcaraz, during his pre-tournament news conference, describing his relationship with his coach Juan Carlos Ferraro.

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