The Miami Open, a joint ATP/WTA 1000 event, is taking place this week and next at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. It’s the second consecutive 1000 level tournament following the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells last week.
Qualifying for the 96-player draws in the men’s and women’s tennis tournaments concluded early this week as did the first round, and now things get exciting with second-round action in the men’s draw beginning on Friday. The top-32 players in both draws received byes into the second round.
First-Round Recap
As the top-32 players in both draws have yet to play, there hasn’t really been any major upsets in Miami, although there have been some noteworthy matches. In the men’s draw, veteran Gael Monfils moved on to the second round, defeating Dusan Lajovic in the opening round. He’ll play Jordan Thompson in the second round. Others to advance in the men’s draw include Roman Safiullin, Roberto Bautista Agut, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jack Draper, and Tomas Machac.
There were some second-round matches in the women’s draw on Thursday with some moderate upsets, including Yulia Putintseva defeating 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova. Sixteenth seed Veronika Kudermetova and 25th seed Elise Mertens are also out of the tournament. There’s already some intriguing third-round matches set, including Maria Sakkari vs. Dayana Yastremska and Qinwen Zheng vs. Victoria Azarenka.
Weekend Matches
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Christopher Eubanks (+126) vs. Dan Evans (-146)
Surprisingly, Christopher Eubanks and Dan Evans will meet for the first time on the ATP Tour on Saturday. Eubanks, 27, is ranked No. 32 in the world, but has not performed well this season. He’s just 3-6, including 1-5 on outdoor hard courts. Evans has an identical 3-6 record, most recently losing an opening round match in a Challenger event. This is a big match for both players as they look to gain momentum. It probably should be a pick-em, so there’s good value in taking Eubanks at +126.
Felix Auger-Aliassime (+219) vs. Alexander Zverev (-264)
There’s always upset potential when Auger-Aliassime is on the court. When he’s on, he’s capable of beating anyone in the world – the problem is he hasn’t been on in quite some time as he has struggled to find his game over the last year. However, the former world No. 6 has two wins over Zverev in their last four matches, one of which was on outdoor hard courts. Zverev is coming off a loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-final at Indian Wells and hasn’t played in a week, while Auger-Aliassime looked impressive in his opening round 7-5, 6-4 win over Adam Walton.
Jelena Ostapenko (-110) vs. Anna Kalinskaya (-110)
This match is pick-em with both players having tremendous seasons, although it’s worth noting that Kalinskaya, despite being ranked 19 spots lower, is 2-0 in her career against Ostapenko. Kalinskaya beat the Latvian earlier this season in Dubai and also at the Adelaide International in 2023. Kalinskaya is 17-6 this season and Ostapenko is 17-5. Expect a close, three-set affair with Ostapenko coming out on top.
