The quarter finals of the ATP Miami Open begin on Wednesday evening when the two top half matches take place, which means that by the end of the night we will know one of the two semi-finals in the second Masters 1000 event of the season.
The two matches on Wednesday will both take place on the Stadium court and we have three of the top 10 players in the world on show as well as one of the surprise packages of the week so far so we are nicely poised for some great tennis.
Emil Ruusuvuori vs Jannik Sinner
The opening quarter final in Miami this week sees the man who was touted by many, ourselves included, as the potential champion this week when the Italian ace Jannik Sinner takes on Emil Ruusuvuori, who is into the quarter final of a Masters 1000 event for the first time.
Sinner might well feel he has unfinished business with this tournament after looking so good here a year ago before having to withdraw after a couple of games of his quarter final with Francisco Cerundolo. The classy Italian is hitting the ball lovely at the minute and the way he has dispatched Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev in the last two rounds has been very impressive indeed. Ruusuvuori had to battle a lot harder in the previous round, taking almost three hours to get the better of Botic van de Zandschulp and with not a huge amount of recovery time in humid conditions that might not be ideal, especially as he had the extra match in his legs having entered the tournament in the first round. What is less ideal for the Finn is that he is 0-4 against Sinner in their past battles. They include meetings here in each of the last two seasons. Sinner won 63 62 in 2021 but Ruusuvuori did win a set against the Italian here a year ago, losing out in a deciding set tiebreak. That might offer some encouragement for the underdog but he is going to need his best performance of the week or for the level of Sinner to drop. Unless the weight of expectation as a favourite gets to Sinner I expect him to come through a shade comfortably but I’m on him outright and he’s plenty short enough here so I’ll just watch this one rather than get involved in it.
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Carlos Alcaraz vs Taylor Fritz
The second quarter final comes along in the night session and is a surprising first meeting between the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and the American number one Taylor Fritz, in what should be a belter of a contest.
Alcaraz has looked very assured and smooth this week but there has been a lot to like about the way Fritz has hit the ball too and if both bring their best stuff with them then we should be treated to a really good encounter. Both men have come through without dropping a set, indeed Alcaraz is yet to drop a set across this Sunshine double, but you get the feeling Fritz is going to provide him with his biggest challenge, especially if he hits the ball like he did against Holger Rune on Tuesday. While Alcaraz has looked very good over the month as a whole, there were one or two signs of fatigue against Dusan Lajovic in the third round and Tommy Paul got closer than most would have expected in the last 16 on Tuesday. I still suspect Alcaraz might find a way through here but Fritz has the serve and the ground game to keep competitive and potentially claim a set or at the very least take sets deep. I fancy the American to stay within three games of the world number one, whose exploits over the last couple of weeks must soon start to catch up with him.
Tips
Back T.Fritz (+3.5 games) to beat C.Alcaraz for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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