Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Nadal advances in Open
Spaniard defeats Sela 6-3, 6-4; Muguruza survives
A funny thing happened on the way to the top of men’s tennis.
Roger Federer, 35, the unofficial G.O.A.T., was written off after taking six months off to recover from knee surgery and he dropped to 16th after not winning an ATP title for the first time in 16 years..
Rafael Nadal, 30, inarguably the greatest clay-court champion of all time with nine French Open titles, who flip-flopped with Federer at Nos. 1 and 2 from 2005-10, dropped to No. 9 in 2016 mostly due to wrist, knee and core ailments.
They’ve been passed by 29-year-olds’ Serb Novak Djokovic and Brit Andy Murray, the top two players on the planet the past few years. Alas, Djokovic, a six-time champion here, including the last three, and No. 1 Murray, a two-time Miami champ, are both sidelined by elbow injuries and were slumping before that.
Meanwhile, a resurgent Federer, sporting a beefed-up backhand, notched Slam No. 18 in Australia in January and his 25th Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells last week to catapult to No. 6.
With apologies to top-seeded
Stanislas Wawrinka, 4th-ranked Kei Nishikori and oft-injured 5th-ranked Milos Raonic, Miami tennis fans clamor for the 37th meeting between these two living legends in the finals on April 2.
Nadal, seeded fifth, lost to his old rival in the Aussie finals and the fourth round of Indian Wells, but the Spaniard is 15-2 against everyone else this year after a routine 6-3, 6-4 secondround victory over Israeli Dudi Sela on Stadium Court under extremely windy conditions Friday at the Miami Open.
“The year just started. We have nine Masters 1000s, we only played one, we have four Grand Slams, we only played one, we have a lot of 500 tournaments,” said Nadal, a fourtime finalist in Miami and winner of 30 Masters 1000 titles,
“It’s true that Roger start unbelievable, that’s great. It’s true that Novak and Andy didn’t start as well as they did the last couple of years, but in my opinion they are favorites because they have been there for the last couple of years playing more consistently than what we did; so it’s very early.
“I feel I’m playing well … but let’s see what happens here and see what happens after this tournament, I have five [clay-court] tournaments, probably, not the most important of the year, but one of them.”
Sela, 31, ranked 83rd, is 3-14 against Top 10 players, with his last victory against Andy Roddick in 2010.
Nadal will meet crafty German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 26th seed, who came back from 2-5 and two breaks down in the third set to dispatch GenX American Taylor Fritz 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
Fritz’ countryman, Jared Donaldson, a qualifier, took out Mischa Zverev — a serve-and-volleyer who stunned Murray in Australia — in straights. Other seeds advancing were third-seeded Raonic, in his first tournament since granting rising American Jack Sock a walkover in the Delray Beach Open finals due to a torn hamstring.
Sock, the 13th-seed, improved to 16-3 when Japan’s Yoshioka retired at 4-2 of the first set with a knee injury.
Second-seeded Kei Nishikori made quick work of Kevin Anderson, a South American transplant living in Delray Beach, 6-4, 6-3. The upset of the day came from French veteran Jeremy Chardy, who dispatched seventh-seed Marin Cilic in three sets.
Muguruza survives
American Christina McHale served for the match twice and held one match point in the secondset tiebreaker before the emotional Garbine Muguruza survived a two-day, rain-delayed 2:24 marathon, with a 0-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 comeback.
Since stunning Serena Williams to win the French Open title last June, Muguruza’s best results have been quarterfinal berths in the Australia and Indian Wells.
“It was a very tough day with this wind,” Muguruza said. “I win with my heart and my spirit. No matter what happened I was going to give my best fight.” Top-ranked Angelique
Kerber and Venus Williams, 36, a three-time winner here but not since 2001, played late matches. ...
Third-seeded Simona Halep was spraying ground strokes but after an hour rain delay used her experience to down Fort Lauderdale resident, 19-year-old Naomi Osaka, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
There will be no Sunshine Sweep for Russian Elena Vesnina, 30, who after notching the most prestigious title of her career at Indian Wells last week, completed a rain-postponed match on Court 7 where she was sent packing 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 by wild card Ajila Tomljanovic.