It is a scary thought for Juan Martin Del Potro’s prospective opponents at the Miami Open presented by Itau – the man riding a 13-match winning streak feels he can play even better yet. The most in-form player on the ATP World Tour right now made the admission after dropping just four games against former No. 4 in the ATP Rankings, Kei Nishikori on Sunday. Seeded fifth, he will meet 26-year-old Serbian Filip Krajinovic for the first time on Tuesday for a place in the quarter-finals.
Del Potro was made to work in his opening match of the tournament when he needed three sets to hold off Robin Haase. It came after the Argentine’s dramatic victory over Roger Federer in the BNP Paribas Open final only days before – his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and a match in which he saved three championship points. He raised his level a notch to score his sixth win in eight FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters with Nishikori.
“I can play even better, but I need to get confidence playing in this court, trying to keep winning matches. But is not easy,” Del Potro said of his second-round form. “My body is starting to feel tight because of all my success.”
After overcoming a left Achilles and ankle injury, which forced his withdrawal from the Sydney International and Australian Open, the 26-year-old Krajinovic has strung together his best start to a season. He reached the third round in Indian Wells leading in, where he fell to defending champion Federer, with his best result in 2018 a semi-final run in Dubai. The Serbian finished 2017 in stunning fashion in Paris where he reached his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final as a qualifier in November before Jack Sock ended his run in a three-set final.
Victory over Del Potro would see him reach just his second Masters 1000 quarter-final. For Del Potro it would be just his second appearance in the Miami Open presented by Itau quarter-finals, after falling to Andy Murray in the 2009 semi-finals. That was the year he would go on to claim his first Grand Slam title at the US Open, prior to four wrist surgeries, which kept him sidelined for much of 2010 and 2014-15.
“I'm better. I am still doing treatments two, three hours a day for my wrist before the practice, after the match,” Del Potro revealed. “That takes me a lot of time every day. That's what I have to do if I want to keep playing tennis.
“But my backhand is still improving. I can mix it up with my slices, with my drop shots. I think it's a good signal for the future. Hopefully I can hit even more with my two-handed backhands, because I like to hit in that way.”
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Last season, the most fiercely contested battle so far in a burgeoning rivalry was played out in the quarter-finals in Miami when Aussie Nick Kyrgios edged past Alexander Zverev. The FedEx ATP Head2Head ledger now stands at 3-2 in Kyrgios’s favour, although the German claimed their most recent encounter in a Davis Cup tie in Brisbane in February.
On Tuesday, a Miami rematch is on the cards. In his first tournament since losing to Zverev in that Davis Cup tie on February 4, Kyrgios won a showdown between last year’s Miami semi-finalists when he breezed past Italian Fabio Fognini to reach the fourth round. Zverev has done it tougher, needing a third-set tie-break to hold off Daniil Medvedev before squaring his FedEx ATP Head2Head record at 2-2 with David Ferrer after another three-set win.
“It will be a lot of fun. I'm sure we're both going to look forward to it. He's a great player,” Kyrgios said. “At the moment I'm not even thinking tactically or anything like that… I’m just going out there and competing and being healthy. That's my main focus at the moment.”
#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov will attempt to reach his first Masters 1000 semi-final since defeating Del Potro and Rafael Nadal en route to the last four at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal seven months ago. The 18-year-old will take on Indian Wells semi-finalist Borna Coric.
Second seed Marin Cilic will look to advance to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since reaching his third Grand Slam final at the Australian Open this season. The 29-year-old, also a finalist at Wimbledon last year, will need to withstand a barrage of big serves when he takes on American John Isner for the ninth time. Cilic leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-2. Isner is coming off a victory with Jack Sock in last week’s Indian Wells doubles final over Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan.
