Miami has always been a special place for Alexander Zverev. It was the site of his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 win in 2015 as well as his first Top 10 win at the elite level last year, when he defeated top-seeded Stan Wawrinka en route to the quarter-finals.
The German is off to another good start at the Miami Open presented by Itau, outlasting recent Sydney champion Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5) in a second-round thriller on Saturday.
"It was not an easy match, but if you look at my history, the tournaments I do well in have very tough opening rounds," said Zverev. "I didn't play my best, but it's very important to find ways to win matches like that.
"He's one of the best servers on tour. On his serve, anything can happen. I was just happy to take my chances in the tie-break and capitalise at 6/5 to win the match. It was very important for me and I hope to keeping winning."
The World No. 5, who is now 9-4 in 2018, is looking to kickstart his season a year after earning five titles and winning 55 matches. By this time in 2017, the eventual Nitto ATP Finals qualifier had pushed Rafael Nadal to five sets at the Australian Open and won his second ATP World Tour title at Montpellier.
The victory against Medvedev comes in Zverev's 200th tour-level match, and the 20-year-old is now 126-74. Perhaps his ninth consecutive deciding-set tie-break victory at the tour-level (9-1) will give the third seed the momentum he needs to go on a deep run in Miami once again. He will play No. 28 seed David Ferrer in the third round after the veteran Spaniard ousted Russian Evgeny Dosnkoy 6-2, 6-2.
Ferrer has made at least the quarter-finals in Miami six times, including an appearance in the 2013 final (l. to Murray). The 35-year-old leads the pair's FedEx ATP Head2Head 2-1, but Zverev earned his lone victory in the series last month in Rotterdam.
A year ago, another rising star, #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, was playing an ATP Challenger Tour event in Guadalajara, Mexico. He had played just one tour-level match all year: a loss in Marseille against World No. 120 Julien Benneteau. The left-hander was No. 194 in the ATP Rankings.
What a difference a year has made for the teenager. Shapovalov ousted No. 24 seed Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 7-5 to advance to the third round on his Miami debut, making it this far at a Masters 1000 event for the second time. The 2017 Emirates ATP Star of Tomorrow now has 10 tour-level victories on the season, a mark he did not hit until September last season.
It appeared for a moment that Shapovalov was experiencing déjà vu. The 18-year-old let slip a 5-1 lead in the third set of his first-round match against Viktor Troicki before battling through a deciding tie-break. Shapovalov led by a break twice after breezing through a 24-minute opening set against Dzumhur, but could not hold that lead. But the 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier broke for the fifth time at 5-5 before serving out the victory.
Shapovalov will face No. 11 seed Sam Querrey or Moldovan Radu Albot.
Did You Know?
Zverev's victory over Medvedev comes in his 200th tour-level match. He has won six ATP World Tour titles and reached a career-best No. 3 in the ATP Rankings.
