Britain’s second-seeded Andy Murray mastered the tricky conditions to make short work of Australian Bernard Tomic on Saturday to reach the third round of the Miami ATP Masters and WTA tournament.
Tomic managed to win only 10 points in the final set of a 56-minute match dominated by the reigning Olympic and US Open champion, who has a training base in Miami.
“It’s very tough conditions,” Murray said of his determination to get off to a quick start in his opening match after enjoying a first-round bye.
Photo: AFP
“You’re never going to feel great your first match, especially when it’s tricky conditions and with his game style, too,” the Scot added. “I don’t know if he was tired or struggling with the humidity, but he was playing pretty low-percentage tennis. That played into my hands.”
World No. 3 Murray was not sure that Tomic deserved the jeers he heard from fans as he faded in the second set.
“You know, it is tough when you’re going behind and making quite a lot of mistakes,” Murray said. “I have done it before when my head has gone down and you still want to win, but it doesn’t always appear that way.”
Murray, who lost to top-ranked Novak Djokovic in last year’s final, next faces Grigor Dimitrov, who won the first set against Simone Bolelli, with the second set level at 1-1 when the Italian retired with a wrist injury.
Murray, the 2009 Miami champion, beat the rising Bulgarian star to retain his title in Brisbane in January.
The Scot remained perfect in two career matches against Tomic, the youngest player in the ATP top 100 at age 20.
Murray broke in the fifth game and then held serve for a 4-2 lead, taking full advantage of 14 unforced errors in the first six games by Tomic.
Tomic netted a backhand to give Murray a second break, and the first set, in the ninth game of the match.
Murray broke Tomic twice in the second set as well, and closed it out with his eighth ace.
In other men’s matches, French sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 to reach the third round.
World No. 1 Serena Williams continued her progress toward a sixth Miami WTA title with a 6-3, 6-3 third-round victory over Japan’s Ayumi Morita.
Williams got off to a slow start, dropping her serve in the second game as Morita raced to a 3-0 lead.
However, the American bounced back with a vengeance, winning the next six games to pocket the first set.
She broke Morita for a 4-2 lead in the second, gave herself a first match point with her seventh ace and finished it off with a service winner.
It was good news for the Williams family, after elder sister Venus withdrew with a lower back injury shortly before her third-round match against American Sloane Stephens.
“I think it was the right decision for her,” Serena said of her sister’s withdrawal. “I haven’t seen her really on the practice court as much because she wasn’t feeling great, so I think she’s taking everything a day at a time.”
Venus’ withdrawal followed that of Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka on Friday before her opening match with an ankle injury.
Two more top-10 women bowed out on Saturday, as Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova suffered third-round defeats.
Young Spaniard Garbine Muguruza dispatched ninth-seeded Wozniacki — a former world No. 1 — 6-2, 6-4.
Belgian Kirsten Flipkens beat seventh-seeded Kvitova — a former Wimbledon champion — 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.
Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the fourth seed, survived a scare en route to a 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-3 victory over Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.
Fifth-seeded Li Na of China held on for a 6-2, 6-4 victory over American Varvara Lepchenko.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB