Indian Wells and Miami 2018

First topic message reminder :

Can Fed complete a double sunshine double? It's asking a lot, but there are a host of big names missing this year, including Rafa.
Delpo could have a good chance, having taken the Acapulco title. Could one of the young guns make a mark? The likes of Shapovalov, Tiafoe, Tsitsipas and Fritz are coming through. There will be some interesting early matches at IW, as a lot of the big names who have managed to turn up are now comparatively lowly ranked (Nishi, Tsonga, Gasquet, Raonic).
   Fed needs to make the semis to keep his number one slot. You'd reckon he'd manage that, particularly if Delpo is not in his half of the draw.
   As for the women, I'm not sure if world number one Halep is going to be fit. Kerber could be a good bet.

In the women's game, a result that stands out is qualifier Danielle Collins defeat of Venus Williams in straight sets 6-2 6-3 to reach the semi-final. She is 24 years old ranked #94 and as far as I can tell has only recently turned professional having spent most of her earlier time in college studying as well as being engaged in the university tennis scene.

Zverev beats Coric in straight sets.

John Isner wakes from his slumber and reaches Miami final. Isner blasted Del Potro off the court 6-1 7-6(2)

Isner beats Del Potro in straight sets. Del Potro was so close to a Sunshine double.

Let us see how the other semi pans out.

laverfan wrote:Isner beats Del Potro in straight sets. Del Potro was so close to a Sunshine double.

..................

I think he would have had to at least get himself into the Final before we could say “he was so close .....”

The sunshine double is a pretty tough ask.

That said, it’s been a fantastic start to 2018 for Delpo. I believe he has racked up the most match wins of this season to date on the Tour.

Zverev beats Carrero-Busta in straight sets - 7-6(4),6-2. Played the TB very well.

In checking out the speed of the Miami court I came across the following article:
https://www.ubitennis.net/2016/10/atp-reveals-court-speed-of-all-nine-master-1000-events-and-atp-finals-shanghai-is-the-fastest/

It suggests that "Miami" is best described as a medium-slow court.  That was back in 2016 so things might have changed.

It has been suggested that Del Potro's loss had a lot to do with general fatigue, having played a lot of competitive tennis recently.  Maybe Federer's losses can also be put down to general fatigue - and hence the long break he now plans.

laverfan wrote: ... Let us see how the other semi pans out.

Human language is a wonderful thing.  The idiom "pans out" presumably derives from the small scale process of using a pan to search for and separate out gold from within river sediment (and making use of differential buoyancy).

Zverev has the tools to beat Isner.

The Miami court may be a bit faster closer to end of the tourney, as it wears out with play. It is still a medium-slow court. If you look at the PDF version of the Miami draw, it mentions the surface as Laykold, and it has been in use since 1984.

Isner, by all accounts, played really well to beat delpo, but Zverev will be favourite in the final. Sloane Stephens did very little immediately before the US Open and had done precious little since. But now she has another big tournament win and a place in the top 10.

Into a final set in the Miami men's final, with just the one break of serve (achieved by Isner) as he levelled the match 6-4 in the second set.

Isner to serve for the match 5-4 in third set. Poor game by Zverev. Isner wins.

A terrific win by Isner and yet another title for a 30-something. Also, yet another missed opportunity by the young(er) brigade.

Very impressive from Isner.

This is the first Masters on his CV. Would have been a third for Zverev.

Zverev has done well to climb the rankings but still seems to be some way short of fulfilling his potential. A good tourney for him nonetheless, and all valuable experience.

Alexander Zverev at 6'6" and maybe still growing is IMO not biomechanically optimal for the game of tennis. 6'0" to 6'2" seems to be the ideal height. I think he will have injury issues and some difficulty getting to low balls especially directed close to him.

Saw Isner play Del Potro and he had a tremendous purple patch at the start as well as a strong finish and for the rest was solid throughout. Lots of good attacking and few errors that I recall.

Del Potro did not play badly at all although maybe slightly passive in retrospect, he can't be at exactly the same high level in every match.

A worthy title for Isner, I think I predicted on here or elsewhere some years ago that he would never quite manage to win a slam and maybe not a masters either, so I was wrong about that.

I think Del Potro has taken away some of his power just a notch. I'm not sure if that's to protect the wrist or part of his strategy to become more varied and structure the points, but he doesn't seem to be bludgeoning every forehand to quite the same extent.

His backhand and overall variety seems to have improved quite a lot. Instead of the same old cross court slice repeated over and over there is more variety in the slice in depth and speed and so on, while he also is hitting backhands down the line far more regularly than in the past. In the past it was so infrequent I honestly thought he didn't have the confidence to technically execute the shot.

Overall he has a more varied game now and that may make him more of a threat, even at a slam.

The men's game is very open at the moment - with clay maybe not so if Rafa performs well, but everywhere apart from clay we are going to see tournament favourites with only a 20-25% chance to win the title rather than real strong favourites that can honestly be expected to defeat the field.