Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Agnieszka Radwanska all lost on Monday . That is a #1 seed and then two #2 seeds. The most surprising loss was Serena Williams losing in three sets to Sveltana Kuznetsova 6-7(3), 6-1,6-2. The Miami Open is considered by Serena to be her home tournament having won the title eight times. Serena has not won a tournament since Cincinnatti in August and many observers thought that she would use this tournament as a spring board for the upcoming Grand Slam season. Serena made no excuses. She said that “I did the best I could do. I can’t win every match. The players come out and play me like they’ve never played before in their lives.” As Serena approaches her 35th birthday her fans need to have more realistic expectations. Serena is after all human.
Andy Murray is used to the heat and humidity of this stadium court since he trains on it all the time. Conditioning was not a factor in his loss to Grigor Dimitrov 6-7(1),6-1,6-2. Unforced errors were a problem however. After winning the first set Murray started to make a lot of mistakes and never regained his usually very solid form. Murray is the only player to describe the conditions at the Miami Open as, “really, really nice.” And when it isn’t windy then “the conditions are good for tennis.
Murray was asked a very interesting question about the strangeness of the first week for a tournament of this magnitude. Had he ever seen anything like it? The players are very consistent so this has not happened very often. But Murray is not ready to acknowledge a changing of the guard in tennis. He noted that Federer got to the semis of Australia and he lost to Djokovic in the finals. Serena also reached the finals of Australia. So not so fast my friends.
In an interesting side note Roger Federer started practicing and training yesterday on a private clay court in the Miami area…. Looks like he will be around for a while.
Story contributed to 10sBalls By Don Petrine Of The Miami area
Topics: 10sballs_com, Agnieszka Radwanska, Andy Murray, ATP Miami, Miami Open tennis, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Wta