Miami Open Tennis 2015 Results: Scores, Bracket and Schedule After Sunday
On the women's side, the Miami Open continued to be a platform for the world's best women's tennis players—minus Maria Sharapova—to thrive. On the men's side, though, Sunday played host to the second No. 2 seed being sent packing.
Rafael Nadal's surprising loss (4-6, 6-2, 3-6) to countryman Fernando Verdasco provided intrigue on what was otherwise a nondescript day in Miami. The second-seeded Spaniard played the match almost evenly throughout. Both men had general success on their serves, each broke the other three times and played about as close on a per-point basis as you can. Verdasco won 84 points compared to Nadal's 83.
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When Verdasco won those points, it ultimately made the difference in the match. His breaks in the first and third helped decide sets. Nadal's utter dominance in the second set made the overall numbers look better but ultimately left him spent as the match went along. Verdasco was able to save nine of his 12 break points overall.
"It is not a question of tennis. The thing is the question of being relaxed enough to play well on court," Nadal said, per Reuters (via EuroSport). "A month-and-a-half ago I didn't have the game. My game has improved but...I am still playing with too much nerves for a lot of moments, important moments, still a little anxious on those moments."
The win gives Verdasco two straight over Nadal after losing his first 14 head-to-heads. The 31-year-old moves on and will hope his win over Nadal catapults him to his seventh singles win on tour. Nadal indicated his confidence was shaken after the match.
"The tournaments that are coming are historically good for my game, good tournaments for my confidence," Nadal said, per Eurosport. "But if I'm not able to control all these things, I am not going to have the possibility to compete well and have success in those events." ATPWorldTour.com's Josh Meiseles noted that Nadal's loss resulted in Andy Murray moving up to No. 3 in the rankings:
Other than Nadal's loss, it was a rather nondescript day on the men's side. Andy Murray advanced in straight sets over Santiago Giraldo, Tomas Berdych got by Bernard Tomic in three sets and Kevin Anderson moved on in his head-to-head against Leonardo Mayer.
The second-biggest upset of the day went to Stan Wawrinka, who fell in a close straight-sets match with Adrian Mannarino. The No. 31 seed Mannarino managed to scrape by on a pair of tiebreakers that left the Miami crowd standing and applauding. It was Wawrinka's seven double faults that wound up sending him home early.
On the women's side, it was a day of breezy finishes.
Serena Williams advanced in her head-to-head with Catherine Carta Bellis 6-1, 6-1, dominating from the outset and never looking back. The top-seeded American needed only 41 minutes to advance, drilling seven aces and losing only two service points. Bellis, who is 15 years old, was overwhelmed in the moment against one of the sport's great players.
“I was pretty nervous,” Bellis told reporters. “I mean, she’s No. 1 in the world and like the best of all time for a reason. I think it was just a really good experience for me for the future, and I’m glad I got to do it, but she’s a lot better than me for right now.” SI Tennis used music to illustrate the significant age gap between Serena and Bellis:
Elsewhere, third-seeded Simona Halep took down Camila Giorgi in straight sets, Sara Errani came from behind against Garbine Muguruza after dropping the first and Sloane Stephens continued to try trekking her way to a first career win by defeating Johanna Larsson.
The other notable loss from a high-seeded player came from Angelique Kerber, who went down 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 against Svetlana Kuznetsova. The highly contested match saw the players separated by a single point overall and lasted well more than two hours. Kuznetsova's reward for the upset will be taking on the red-hot Williams.
If their previous head-to-head competitions are any indication, Williams should win in a romp. That said, if the first few days in Miami have taught us anything, it's that anything can happen.
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