The 31st edition of the ATP Miami Masters 1000 was played from 24/3/2015 to 5/4/2015 at Crandon Park Tennis Centre at Key Biscane in Florida, United States.
As this tournament is the last of the hard court series, it is known to have a number of top seeds skip it.
This is so that they can have an extra week off from the tour before the gruelling 2 month European clay court swing.
This year’s tournament saw the pull outs of World No.2 and 17 time Grand Slam Winner Roger Federer and the reigning U.S.Open Champion Marin Cilic.
As with all the Masters 1000 events the top seeds got a first round bye. The man who gained a wildcard into the tournament due to Roger Federer’s withdrawal was former World No.1 and 2 time Grand Slam Champion Lleyton Hewitt. Fans were absolutely delighted to see him. However, he failed to make the most of this opportunity and was sent crashing out in the 1st round itself.
Rafael Nadal’s woes on the hard courts continued with his early exit at the tournament. He lost to countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the 3rd round.
The surprise package of the tournament was the top ranked American and World No.24 John Isner who reached the semi finals beating the World No.5 Kei Nishikori World No.11 Grigor Dimitrov and World No 6 Milos Raonic in what according to the writer was the MATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT.
The epic clash in the fourth round saw John Isner take on Canadian Milos Raonic. Both players are known for their tremendous serving powers. So it should be no surprise to know that the match saw a grand total of 38 aces. All 3 sets required a tie breaker and the match took 2 hours and 44 minutes.
John Isner beat Milos Raonic 6-7(3/7) 7-6(8/6) 7-6(7/5)
The final of the tournament was a repeat of the Australian Open Final between 8 time Grand Slam Winner and World No.1 Novak Djokovic against 2 time Grand Slam Winner World No.4 Andy Murray. The first two sets were played at an extremely high level and both sets crossed the hour mark. The only blemish in the sets was the smashing from both players. A majority of the smashes were landing near the line umpires chairs, which is about 5-6 feet away from the court. When Andy Murray won the third set breaking Novak’s serve, everyone thought that the final set would be just like the previous 2, but, everyone was left disappointed as Murray seemed to just wave the white flag. He was broken thrice and offered no resistance after he went 2-0 down. After that the match wasn’t worth watching at all as Murray was playing with no intent whatsoever. In the first set Novak too, like Murray was a break down but kept on forcing his opponent to play that 1 extra shot. That ploy worked as Novak broke back, forced a tie break and won. Wish Murray had adopted that style of play and put up a fight of the third set.
Novak Djokovic (1) beat Andy Murray (4):
7-6(/), 4-6, 6-0
With this win Novak Djokovic became the first player to win the Indian Wells Masters 1000 and the Miami Masters 1000 back to back in 3 separate seasons. The other seasons were 2011 and 2014. He also won his 5th Miami Masters 1000 title and at 27 years of age has a realistic chance of beating Andre Agassi’s record of 6 titles at this tournament. The win took his career masters 1000 title count to 22(3rd highest), which is just one behind Swiss Maestro Roger Federer’s 23 titles.
Andy Murray will move up one place to third on the ATP rankings courtesy his runner up showing and current World No 3 Rafael Nadal’s early exit which saw him failing to defend his runner up finish 12 months back.
Next Major Tournament: Monte Carlo Masters 1000
-Reubyn Coutinho
As this tournament is the last of the hard court series, it is known to have a number of top seeds skip it.
This is so that they can have an extra week off from the tour before the gruelling 2 month European clay court swing.
This year’s tournament saw the pull outs of World No.2 and 17 time Grand Slam Winner Roger Federer and the reigning U.S.Open Champion Marin Cilic.
As with all the Masters 1000 events the top seeds got a first round bye. The man who gained a wildcard into the tournament due to Roger Federer’s withdrawal was former World No.1 and 2 time Grand Slam Champion Lleyton Hewitt. Fans were absolutely delighted to see him. However, he failed to make the most of this opportunity and was sent crashing out in the 1st round itself.
Rafael Nadal’s woes on the hard courts continued with his early exit at the tournament. He lost to countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the 3rd round.
The surprise package of the tournament was the top ranked American and World No.24 John Isner who reached the semi finals beating the World No.5 Kei Nishikori World No.11 Grigor Dimitrov and World No 6 Milos Raonic in what according to the writer was the MATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT.
The epic clash in the fourth round saw John Isner take on Canadian Milos Raonic. Both players are known for their tremendous serving powers. So it should be no surprise to know that the match saw a grand total of 38 aces. All 3 sets required a tie breaker and the match took 2 hours and 44 minutes.
John Isner beat Milos Raonic 6-7(3/7) 7-6(8/6) 7-6(7/5)
The final of the tournament was a repeat of the Australian Open Final between 8 time Grand Slam Winner and World No.1 Novak Djokovic against 2 time Grand Slam Winner World No.4 Andy Murray. The first two sets were played at an extremely high level and both sets crossed the hour mark. The only blemish in the sets was the smashing from both players. A majority of the smashes were landing near the line umpires chairs, which is about 5-6 feet away from the court. When Andy Murray won the third set breaking Novak’s serve, everyone thought that the final set would be just like the previous 2, but, everyone was left disappointed as Murray seemed to just wave the white flag. He was broken thrice and offered no resistance after he went 2-0 down. After that the match wasn’t worth watching at all as Murray was playing with no intent whatsoever. In the first set Novak too, like Murray was a break down but kept on forcing his opponent to play that 1 extra shot. That ploy worked as Novak broke back, forced a tie break and won. Wish Murray had adopted that style of play and put up a fight of the third set.
Novak Djokovic (1) beat Andy Murray (4):
7-6(/), 4-6, 6-0
With this win Novak Djokovic became the first player to win the Indian Wells Masters 1000 and the Miami Masters 1000 back to back in 3 separate seasons. The other seasons were 2011 and 2014. He also won his 5th Miami Masters 1000 title and at 27 years of age has a realistic chance of beating Andre Agassi’s record of 6 titles at this tournament. The win took his career masters 1000 title count to 22(3rd highest), which is just one behind Swiss Maestro Roger Federer’s 23 titles.
Andy Murray will move up one place to third on the ATP rankings courtesy his runner up showing and current World No 3 Rafael Nadal’s early exit which saw him failing to defend his runner up finish 12 months back.
Next Major Tournament: Monte Carlo Masters 1000
-Reubyn Coutinho