Medvedev, Schwartzman and Alcaraz meet at Miami tournament

Despite the absences of Serbian Novak Djokovic, number one in the world, and Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the Miami Masters 1000 maintains its brilliance with the presence of Russian Daniil Medvedev, Argentine Diego Schwartzman and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.

There will also be the new star of local tennis, Taylor Fritz, who won Sunday at Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 of the season, where he beat Nadal in the final to become the first American to win the tournament in the Californian desert since Andre Agassi in 2001.

Argentina will have six players in the men’s division, led by ‘Peque’ Schwartzman, while Spain will do so with seven, led by youth Alcaraz, semifinalist in Indian Wells, where he fell to Nadal.

Alcaraz, 18 years old and sixteenth in the ATP ranking, pushed Nadal to the limit on Saturday, proving why he is singled out as the future of Spanish tennis.

In the women’s WTA 1000 tournament will be the Spaniards Paola Badosa and Garbiñe Muguruza.

Russian Daniil Medvedev will try to win his first title of 2022 in Miami to regain the number one spot in the world, which returned to Djokovic on Monday.

The Serbian will not be in Miami because he is not vaccinated against covid-19 and therefore not authorized to enter US territory.

Rafa Nadal, for his part, had already ruled out his presence in this event to rest and face 100 percent of the clay court tour of Europe. The Mallorcan also suffered an injury to his left chest and ribs, which had him abused in the Indian Wells final on Sunday.

Medvedev, who like his compatriots and Belarusians will play without mention of his country or representation of his flag, according to the directive of the governing bodies of tennis in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could cross paths with Scottish veteran Andy Murray.

And its main competitors will be German Alexander Zverev (4) and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5). These two quickly failed at Indian Wells.

– How are Osaka and Azarenka? –

In the absence of the world’s number one, Australian Ashleigh Barty, who decided to recharge her batteries after her crowning at the Australian Open, the favorite is Poland’s Iga Swiatek.

Swiatek came from winning at Indian Wells and climbed to second place in the women’s ranking, ahead of the Greek Maria Sakkari (3), who she won without difficulty in Sunday’s final.

These two players will try to confirm their current excellent state in Florida, where Aryna Sabalenka (4), in bad shape, will have to overcome.

Finally, eyes will inevitably be on another Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, who, for some unknown reason, burst into tears in the middle of the third-round match at Indian Wells, and on Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who also had an episode of tears during and after her indent (“Naomi you stink”) with part of the audience.

Six months after her tears at the US Open, the Japanese woman was going through a new episode of anguish in the Californian desert.

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