The ATP Tour has kicked into high gear as the second Masters event of the year, the Miami Open, is on its way following the thrilling conclusion of the BNP Paribas Open this past weekend.
Novak Djokovic continued his outright domination of the season with his record fifth-career victory at Indian Wells, giving him terrific momentum heading into Crandon Park this week.
Will anybody be able to contain Djoker’s madness? Let’s take a closer look at this star-studded tournament from sunny Key Biscayne below. And if you’re in need of more quality dark horses worth taking a shot at, feel free to check out our sleeper picks feature right after this.
What more can we say about the best player in the world, Novak Djokovic? Of the four tournaments he had participated in this season, he won three of them (Melbourne, Qatar, Indian Wells).
The only time that the 28-year-old phenom lost a tournament was at Dubai back in February, which was actually when Djokovic decided to retire after falling in the first set of the second round match against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez suggesting that he had problems with his vision from his right eye.
Well, now it seems as if Djokovic is alright and already his sights set on winning even more titles from Crandon Park, where he has five lifetime victories – four from the last five years. Throw in the fact that the spectacular Serb won six of the nine Masters tournaments from 2015 and the first from this year (Indian Wells), and we have ourselves another recipe for Djoker supremacy.
Andy Murray
Leave it to Great Britain’s Andy Murray to try and spoil Djokovic’s party. Murray’s been to the final round of the Miami Open on four occasions. In his first-ever trip to the finals back in 2009, he defeated Djokovic in straight sets. His second win at the tournament came in 2013, where he saw David Ferrer and not Djokovic in the title match.
In spite of his tremendous success at the Miami Open, though, Murray would still love to avoid Djoker this week at all costs because it’s the Serb who has won their last two finals encounters at the event (2012 and 2015), plus the finals at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Still, the World No. 2 has only played in Melbourne this season, meaning that he’s at full-strength heading into Key Biscayne. Djokovic, meanwhile, could be a little fatigued from his strong outing at Indian Wells, so now’s the best time to capitalize on taking Murray to win it all this weekend in Miami.
Sleepers
Roger Federer
Miami will be in for a treat as tennis great Roger Federer surprisingly announced his return to the Tour this week after missing out the past three tournaments due to a knee injury that required surgery. His expected return was supposed to be at Monte Carlo in April, but the sensational Swiss appears to be ready to go well-ahead of schedule.
Federer’s a two-time champ at Crandon Park, granted that his back-to-back victories came in 2005-06. Nonetheless, the ageless 34-year-old wonder still competes well in Miami, having made it to the semis back in 2014 before opting out of 2015’s installment of the Open due to a conflict in schedule.
In addition, Federer has a respectable 8-2 record for the season, losing only to Milos Raonic at the finals in Brisbane and at the semis against Djokovic in Melbourne. The future Hall-of-Famer also has a 22-23 lifetime record against Djokovic (3-5 in 2015), making his presence in Florida one worth keeping an eye on this week, especially if we’ll be treated to another classic Federer-Djokovic showdown at some point during the tournament.
Rafael Nadal
Another elite player who has yet to win this season is Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has been rather inconsistent for the better part of the past couple of years, yet he still finds himself in the conversation of true contenders.
Nadal has one finals appearance and two semis so far this season. However, and like most of the players featured here, the 29-year-old lefty has felt the wrath of Djoker. He lost to the Serb at the finals of the Qatar Open and the semis at the BNP Paribas Open.
One thing that’s working in favor of Nadal at least is the fact that he loves to play in Miami. He’s a four-time finalist at this week’s event thanks to the fact that Crandon Park is considered as the slowest hardcourt surface in the ATP Tour, which caters to the Mallorca native’s strengths normally exhibited on his terrain of choice: clay. With that in mind, Rafa’s in still great shape to win his first ATP title since August of 2015.
Long Shot
Kei Nishikori
You know that the Miami Open’s men’s singles draw is stacked when we have World No. 6 Kei Nishikori as a mere long-shot pick.
Don’t get us wrong; Nishikori’s still as formidable as they come in the ATP Tour. He has a solid 14-5 record and even won at Memphis earlier this year, and he also made it to the fourth round or better of the Miami Open in each of the last four seasons.
However, Japan’s very own doesn’t hold up very well whenever he faces the heavyweights featured earlier in this here article. He lost to Djokovic in the semifinal round at Key Biscayne in 2014 as well as earlier this year at the Aussie Open, which was then followed by defeats to Murray in Great Britain and to Nadal at Indian Wells this March.
Writer’s Prediction
Make that four titles this 2016 for Novak Djokovic.
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