During tennis’ short off-season, Andy Murray lives and trains in Miami while Serena Williams lives in Palm Beach Gardens. Both won the Sony Open over the weekend in Key Biscayne, on essentially their home court.
While Serena “wasn’t playing her best tennis” (her words, not mine), she managed to crush Maria Sharapova 6-0 in the third to win her sixth Miami title. Serena last won the title in 2008. Maria Sharapova has now been to the final in Key Biscayne five times, and has yet to win the elusive Premier Championship. With the result, their WTA rankings hold this week with Serena number-one and Sharapova number-2 on tour.
This week, Serena heads up I-95 to Daniel Island, SC this for the Family Circle Cup on clay. Venus is also in the field, along with fellow Americans Sloane Stephens, Christina McHale, Jamie Hampton, Madison Keys and Melanie Oudin. We’ll see Maria next in Stuttgart, Germany April 22-28 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, a Premier event she won for the first time last year.
Andy Murray’s win over David Ferrer was loaded with extended rallies, unforced errors and breaks of serve in the third set. Oddly enough, fatigue and cramping played a huge role in the final set, with Ferrer receiving treatment on nearly every changeover – something rarely seen from the Spaniard. Murray eventually won the final, dominating the third set tie-break 7-1. Andy on Ferrer: “David is one of the best players in the world, its so tough to play against him, he’s incredible, he’s got a great attitude and he is a great fighter, I’m sure we will have more tough matches in the future.” It’s Andy’s second title in Miami, 26th of his career and with the win, he climbs to number-two in the world behind Novak Djokovic.
Potentially overshadowing Murray’s win is the play of Tommy Haas at this year’s Sony Open. On Wednesday, Tommy will be 35-years-old; and in Miami, he pulled-off a straight-sets win over Novak Djokovic in the 4th-round, easily beat Gilles Simon in the Quarterfinals, then took Ferrer to three-sets before losing in the Semi’s. With his performance in Key Biscayne, Tommy jumps four spots in the ATP-rankings, now number-14 in the world.
2013 Doubles Champions at the Sony Open: Nadia Petrova and Katerina Srebotnik defeated Lisa Raymond and Laura Robson, who were on fire at this year’s event. Aisam Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer easily took-out the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski to win the doubles championship.
This week is a Davis Cup week for the guys. Ferrer will have a week to recover before clay court season, seeing as Spain lost in Davis Cup First Round play against Canada. Great Britain battles Russia in Coventry this weekend with hopes of making it into the World Group Play-offs. Andy Murray – the Scot – will not be playing for the Union Jack.
Here in the U.S., Team USA (Bob and Mike Bryan, Sam Querrey and John Isner) face Team Serbia (Novak Djokovic, Viktor Troicki, Ilija Bozoljac, and Nenad Zimonjic). Both teams are already up in Boise, Idaho for this weekend’s action, featuring two singles rubbers on Friday, the doubles rubber on Saturday and reverse-singles on Sunday. I’ll be in Boise on Thursday, and can’t wait to announce this huge test for the U.S. Davis Cup Team at Boise State. It should be a fun weekend!
By the way – for those in Boise, there’s a FREE open practice on Wednesday at Taco Bell Arena, for the first 600 fans. Team USA will be on the court from 4:00-5:00 and Team Serbia will take the court from 5:00-6:00. Check it out!
