Emily Iannaconi

Raducanu, Stephens, Murray lose in first round at Miami Open

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Former U.S. Open champions Emma Raducanu and Sloane Stephens were knocked out of the Miami Open hours after No. 1-ranked and defending champion Iga Swiatek pulled out of the tournament because of a rib injury.

Bianca Andreescu – the 2019 U.S. Open champ – defeated Raducanu 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Andreescu improved to 2-0 lifetime against Raducanu, the 2021 winner at Flushing Meadows.

“Miami has a special place in my heart,” Andreescu said. “I’ve been coming here since I was I think 12 years old, whether it’s for vacation or training or, yeah, Orange Bowl. I love that tournament very much. Yeah, coming back here, I think it’s just good vibes overall.”

Andreescu moves on to face 10th-ranked Maria Sakkari, who had a first-round bye.

Shelby Rogers beat Stephens 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Stephens has six hard-court titles, including the U.S. Open in 2017 and Miami in 2018.

Rogers will face Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Rogers in the second round at Melbourne Park. Sabalenka is coming off a loss in the final at Indian Wells, California, last week.

On the men’s side, Dusan Lajovic beat three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5.

“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today,” the 35-year-old Murray said. “Made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making. I didn’t really feel like I moved particularly well, which is really important for me.”

Lajovic, a 32-year-old Serbian, will face Maxime Cressy, who had a first-round bye.

Swiatek withdrew because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition. The 21-year-old from Poland also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami, Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament that began Tuesday. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

In other action, 24-year-old American J.J. Wolf defeated Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-3. He’ll face No. 7-ranked Andrey Rublev, who had a first-round bye.

Gael Monfils retired from his match against Ugo Humbert due to a persistent wrist injury.

Giorgi hits 14 double-faults at Miami Open, hangs on to win

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Camila Giorgi hit 14 double-faults, blew a 5-0 lead in the final set and needed four match points before finally pulling out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) victory against Kaia Kanepi in the first round of the Miami Open.

The match lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes, tying for the longest on the WTA Tour this season. The players combined for 30 aces – 19 by Kanepi, who also had seven double-faults.

In the third set, Kanepi was not moving well, and Giorgi raced to a big edge. But after dropping just two of her initial 15 service games, the Italian got broken twice in a row while serving for the victory at 5-1 and 5-3 in the third set.

Kanepi saved one match point at 5-3, another at 5-4 and another in the concluding tiebreaker. Giorgi finally ended things on her next chance with a cross-court forehand winner. She’ll next face 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a three-time champion in Miami and two-time winner at the Australian Open.

All seeded players at the hard-court tournament received first-round byes. Women’s matches in the main draw began Tuesday; the men start Wednesday.

It was a rough afternoon for the Czech teenage sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova. First Brenda, who turns 16 on April 2, lost the initial nine games of a 6-0, 7-5 loss to Wang Xiyu. And then Linda, 17, exited with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss against qualifier Katherine Sebov, who now meets No. 3 Jessica Pegula.

In other action, Rebecca Marino eliminated Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (4), 6-2 to set up a second-round match against 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff; Irina-Camelia Begu trailed 2-0 in the first set and then 5-1 in the second before coming back in both to beat wild-card entry Alexandra Eala 6-2, 7-5; and Marta Kostyuk was a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Claire Liu, an American who is ranked 59th, advanced to a second-round meeting against defending champion and No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek when Katerina Siniakova stopped playing in the second set Tuesday because of an injured wrist.

Alcaraz, Medvedev to clash in Indian Wells final

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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner 7-6 (4), 6-3 to advance to the BNP Paribas Open final against Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev beat Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6 (4) on his eighth match point for his 19th consecutive match victory of the year.

Alcaraz needs to win the title Sunday to regain the No. 1 ranking in the world from Novak Djokovic. The Serb, a five-time champion in Indian Wells, withdrew before the tournament began after he wasn’t allowed to enter the U.S. because he is unvaccinated against COVID-19.

Alcaraz and the 11th-seeded Sinner had split their four previous meetings, with Alcaraz winning both matches on hard courts.

“Jannik is a great player, and he pushes me to improve and makes me play at a high level,” Alcaraz said. “I’m really happy with the level that I played, and the way that I overcome the problem, I saved one set point in the first set.”

Alcaraz never faced a break point against Sinner, who only made 48% of his first serves and 19 of 36 points on serve in the second set. He trailed 3-0 in the second set.

“I didn’t serve well today, which made the biggest difference,” Sinner said. “The baseline rallies I felt okay, I had my chances, especially first set. But he played the important points better than me today, so he deserved to win.”

Alacarz had 28 winners and 14 unforced errors.

Medvedev, the fifth seed, has dominated Tiafoe, winning all five of their career meetings, including 12 of 13 sets in the process.

But the 14th-seeded American put up a valiant fight, saving seven match points in the second set before succumbing.

“If I didn’t win this match, I think I would have nightmares for a very long time. I would not sleep well tonight and a few nights more,” Medvedev said on court.

Tiafoe regularly charged the net to counter Medvedev’s power baseline game. He saved three break points and stayed on serve until the 11th game of the first set. But Medvedev had a net-cord forehand winner to go up 6-5 and then served out the set.

Tiafoe saved three match points while serving down 5-3 in the second. Medvedev piled up four more match points while serving for the match leading 6-5, but couldn’t cash in until the tiebreaker.

“That makes me even happier mentally that I still managed to win,” Medvedev said, “because try playing a tiebreak when you just lost seven match points. I managed to start it well straightaway doing great shots and great rallies.”

Medvedev had 30 winners and just nine unforced errors.

Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak dates to his title run in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai. Now, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and former world No. 1 is in position to add another one.

Medvedev has proven resilient during the 12-day tournament in the Southern California desert. He overcame a badly twisted ankle and a cut thumb in two straight matches to power through to the final.

Rohan Boponna of India and Matt Ebden of Australia defeated top-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neil Skupski of Britain 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 to win the men’s doubles title.

Boponna, who is 43, won his fifth Masters 1000 doubles title and first since 2017. He and Ebden, who is 35, were in their third final of the year.

Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won the women’s doubles title with a 6-1, 6-7 (3), 10-7 victory over Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Laura Siegemund of Germany.

The Czech duo improved to 11-0 this year, having won the Australian Open championship in January.

They men’s and women’s doubles winner each split $436,730 in prize money.