Miami Open: Tiafoe, Berrettini make winning starts; Rublev bows out
Frances Tiafoe earned his 50th win at the prestigious level with a 7-5, 7-6(5) win against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
- MIAMI — Playing
in his 100th ATP Masters 1000 match, Frances Tiafoe earned his 50th win at the
prestigious level with a 7-5, 7-6(5) win against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
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- The 27-year-old earned his first Top 40 win since beating
Daniil Medvedev at Laver Cup last September by improving to 3-1 in his Lexus
ATP Head-to-Head series with Davidovich Fokina, avenging a defeat to the
Spaniard last month in Acapulco, ATP reports.
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- Wins like that are big for me," said Tiafoe, who saved
all four break points he faced after dropping serve in the opening game.
"Any win right now is big for me, but especially the way I played. I was
super aggressive, so I'm really happy with it."
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- Tiafoe will next meet 17th seed Arthur Fils, who led lucky
loser Gabriel Diallo 6-4, 2-3 before the Canadian retired with an ankle injury.
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- Andrey Rublev, on the other hand, became the latest upset
victim with Belgium's Zizou Bergs knocking him out 7-5, 6-4. The 25-year-old
Bergs earned his first Top 20 win by beating the No. 9 in the ATP Rankings to
advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 third round.
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- Bergs will seek to score another upset against Matteo
Berrettini in the third round, after the Italian opened his Miami campaign with
a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win against Hugo Gaston.
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- In a rematch of the 2024 Kitzbuhel final, the 29th-seeded
Berrettini beat lucky loser Gaston with a dominant serving performance.
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- Meanwhile, the 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca became the
youngest player to reach round three at ATP Masters 1000 since Carlos Alcaraz
in Paris in 2021.
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- Fonseca delivered a five-star display to defeat 19th seed
Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-3 and reach the third round at an ATP Masters 1000 for the
first time in his fledgling career.
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- Due to a last-minute schedule change, Fonseca and Humbert's
second-round clash was relocated from Grandstand to Stadium.
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- Fonseca has enjoyed a rapid rise at the start of the 2025
season. He claimed his maiden tour-level title in Buenos Aires in February and
is now up to a new career-high No. 58 in the ATP Live Rankings.
