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MIAMI — (AP) — For tennis up-and-comers like Stefanos Tsitsipas, the draw on the Miami Open started to look so much much less daunting even earlier than the event started.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer withdrew due to accidents, and Novak Djokovic determined towards making the journey from his native Serbia. They stayed residence with their 58 Grand Slam trophies.
“It’s a primary take a look at to see how it’s enjoying with out them,” Tsitsipas mentioned after his third-round victory Saturday. “There may be going to be a time sooner or later the place that is going to be extra frequent and taking place extra recurrently, and perhaps even an ordinary quickly. So, yeah, we get a style of how it’s enjoying with out them.”
The No. 2-seeded Tsitsipas is amongst these with the perfect likelihood to take benefit, and he appeared the half towards Damir Dzumhur, successful 6-1, 6-4.
Ranked a career-high No. 5, Tsitsipas improved to 15-4 this 12 months — and 2-3 lifetime towards Dzumhur. The 22-year-old Greek used his serve to dominate Dzumhur, who by no means had a break level.
“I created a number of alternatives with my serve — I wasn’t dashing in any respect, discovering the correct angles and executing it completely,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “Even with my second serve I felt like I did a number of harm, not giving him an opportunity to press first and apply stress along with his photographs.”
In girls’s play, top-ranked Ash Barty beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2 and had a a lot simpler time than within the earlier spherical, when she saved a match level to beat qualifier Kristina Kucova. That was Barty’s first match away from her native Australian since February 2020.
She stored Ostapenko on the transfer and on the defensive, pulling her in and shifting her backward and forward.
Barty is the defending champion because the 2019 winner. The event was canceled final 12 months firstly of the coronavirus pandemic.
Her potential path to the ultimate turned simpler when No. 3-seeded Simona Halep withdrew earlier than her third-round match due to a proper shoulder harm. No. 5 Elina Svitolina eradicated No. 30 Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (1), 6-4.
Wild card Ana Konjuh upset No. 15 Iga Swiatek. Konjuh’s profession has been slowed by 4 elbow surgical procedures, and this week she has earned her first three wins in main-draw WTA play since 2018.
“It has been irritating the previous couple of years, simply having been via all these surgical procedures and comebacks and simply by no means getting it proper,” Konjuh mentioned. “So simply to be again, you realize, wholesome and to compete at this degree, it means so much.”
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Extra AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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