Pavlyuchenkova and Alexandrova will play the third round derby in Miami. And Rublev lost again to the Czech.
Alexander Nasonov March 23, 2024, 07:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
On Friday, due to rain, not all the second round matches were played.
On March 22, another competitive day took place at the Miami supertournament (USA). Due to the rain that hit the city, not all the scheduled second round matches were played, but some fights could still be played with the participation of Russians. In the men’s draw, Andrey Rublev, fifth seed, played with the Czech Tomas Machac, 23, who finished in the top 60 of the ATP rankings. This was his first face-to-face confrontation.
In the first set, Rublev played unsuccessfully in the receiving games, to the point that he never reached break points. At the same time, in the fifth game, the Russian also made a mistake on serve, and his opponent, who took advantage of the second break point, quickly achieved victory in the game by 6:4 in 29 minutes.
In the second set, Makhach achieved an even faster break, already in the third game. Here Andrey already had the opportunity to recover, but he missed both break points, in the sixth game and in the tenth, when Tomás served to win the match. In the end, the Czech tennis player took advantage of the first match point: 6:4, 6:4 in 1 hour and 6 minutes.
Thus, Rublev suffered the second consecutive defeat. And again from the representative of the Czech Republic. Recall that at the Indian Wells Masters, Andrei lost to Jiri Legechka in the third round and with the same score: 4:6, 4:6.
And in the women’s category we managed to finish two matches with the participation of Russians. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (21) played with the 325th racket in the world, the American Shelby Rogers, who entered the group according to the protected classification. They faced each other for the first time and Anastasia won a landslide victory.
Pavlyuchenkova started the first set by losing her serve. But later the Russian played well in her games, she made three breaks and took the game with a score of 6: 2. During the second set, both tennis players had break points, but the Russian took advantage of her opportunities and the American did not. Anastasia led 5-0 with two breaks, she couldn’t hang up the shuttlecock, but in the seventh game she served for the match 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour and 16 minutes.
Ekaterina Alexandrova (14) took to the court with world number 34 Donna Vekic of Croatia. In personal meetings they achieved a score of 2-2, and in the semi-finals of Linz 2024 Alexandrova won a resounding victory – 5:7, 7:6 (7:4), 7:6 (8:6). This time Catherine also turned out to be stronger and without losing the game.
In the first set, the sixth game became decisive when Alexandrova broke to love. At the same time, in her previous games, the Russian played three break points. Having gained the advantage, Ekaterina subsequently did not give up a single point on her serve: 6: 3 in 35 minutes.
In the second game, Vekic looked for an early break, but Alexandrova was saved from four break points in the second game. As in the first set, everything was decided with a break to love; In this case, the Russian successfully worked on the reception in the seventh game. Serving for the match, Ekaterina fought off another break point and then converted the first match point 6:3, 6:4 in 1 hour and 25 minutes.
In the third round in Miami, Pavlyuchenkova and Alexandrova will face each other; The Russian derby will be played in the tournament.
In addition, the match between Daria Kasatkina (10) and the American Claire Liu (Q) was stopped with the score 2:0, 40:40 in favor of the Russian, who quickly managed to take advantage with a break. And the games with the participation of Daniil Medvedev (3), Anastasia Potapova (30), Elina Avanesyan and Maria Timofeeva (Q) did not even start. All of these matches, if the weather does not interfere, will be played on Saturday, March 23.
The Miami supertournament will end on March 31. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
