Novak Djokovic ran this year’s phenomenal win streak to 20-0 on Sunday, with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of former top 10 player James Blake at the US$9 million Miami WTA and ATP Masters.
The second-seeded Serb, winner of all three events he has played this season, remains the only man in the top 125 not to have lost a match this year.
Fresh from beating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal en route to victory in last week’s Indian Wells Masters, Djokovic is bidding to add a second Miami trophy to the one he won in 2007.
Djokovic raced to victory in 52 minutes to reach the fourth round of the tournament that concludes next Sunday.
“It has been a dream run for me the last couple of months,” said Djokovic, who opened his year with an Australian Open triumph. “I’m playing the best tennis of my life.”
Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro also advanced on Sunday, storming further down his comeback path with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling.
Del Potro, who beat Roger Federer for the 2009 US Open crown, but then missed eight months last year as he recovered from wrist surgery, thrilled his fans at Crandon Park with a victory over one of the year’s hottest players.
Soderling has won 20 matches this year and three titles.
However, now del Potro has pulled alongside him as he produced his own 20th win this year.
Del Potro, ranked 51st but climbing fast, has won five of his last seven matches against top-four players and has now beaten Soderling in their last three encounters.
Spain’s David Ferrer, the world No. 6, also produced a third-round victory as he defeated Indian Somdev Devvarman 6-4, 6-2. Mardy Fish kept the US flag flying as he defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-3.
Home events have been to Fish’s liking, with the right-hander reaching semi-finals in Memphis, Tennessee, and Delray Beach, Florida, last month.
Fish is ranked a career-best 15th, and if he wins two more rounds, he’ll overtake long-time friend Andy Roddick as the top-ranked American in men’s tennis.
Roddick lost his opening match on Saturday and is expected to drop from eighth to about 15th in the next rankings, the lowest he has been since 2002. However, Fish said there’s no comparison between his accomplishments and Roddick’s.
“I don’t think it would mean that much, to be honest,” Fish said. “I certainly wouldn’t feel like the top-ranked American, considering what Andy has accomplished and what I’ve accomplished. His career has quadrupled mine, at least. I wouldn’t be the No. 1 American, really.”
Roddick is a five-time Grand Slam finalist who won the 2003 US Open and finished that year ranked No. 1. Fish’s record in major events is barely above .500 and he has made the top 20 in the year-end rankings only twice.
However, at 29, Fish is in the best condition of his career. That showed against Gasquet in the midday sun on a hot afternoon.
“Playing out there today, you can obviously see why you need to be fit to win these matches,” Fish said.
Belgian Kim Clijsters led a string of women’s seeds into the fourth round. The second-seed and winner of the last two Grand Slams got past tricky Spanish left-hander Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
“My footwork wasn’t right there and I was not playing the game that I should be playing,” Clijsters said. “I’m the one who should be going for the lines and being aggressive and step into the court.
“A few times I felt like I was in a backhand rally with her, that she was dictating a lot of the points. That’s obviously not the right thing to do against somebody like her,” she said.
Third-seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat Australian Jarmila Groth 7-6, (7/4), 6-2, while fifth-seeded French Open champion Francesca Schiavone beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).
No. 8 Victoria Azarenka rallied to overcome Domenika Cibulkova 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Poland’s No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Russian Maria Kirilenko 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
French 15th-seed Marion Bartoli, Indian Wells runner-up, beat Ekaterina Makarova of 6-0, 6-2.
Serbian 2008 Roland Garros champion and one-time world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic advanced as Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano retired from their match with a left thigh injury trailing 2-6, 6-2, 3-0.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier