Miami Masters: Federer Starts As Third Favorite
Federer's starts the next American Masters as third favorite
Former world champion Roger Federer is to start the Miami Masters as a third seed following last week’s elimination from the Indian Wells semi finals which made the Swiss drop one place in the ATP rankings.
Eventual Wells champion and new No. 2 Novak Djokovic beat both Federer and Rafa Nadal to climb second in the world rankings, but the win against the Swiss was the crucial one for the Serb’s advancement. Federer is on the same half of the table with Nadal, the two having plenty of chances to set one of the two the semi finals in Florida. The Swiss will meet either Fabio Fognini or Radek Stepanek in the second round of the $3,645,000 Miami Masters.
On the other side, Novak Djokovic, who has won three big trophies this season, including the Australian Open, the Dubai and the Indian Wells, will face Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round. As for Rafa Nadal, who hasn’t won any title this year, the world champion is to play the winner between Jeremy Chardy and Kei Nishikori in the same second round.
Winner of the 2011 Brisbane, Rotterdam and Marseille tournaments Robin Soderling is also there, looking for his biggest success of the year. The Swede will play either this year’s Zagreb Indoors winner Ivan Dodig of Croatia or Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan. Fifth-seeded Andy Murray is on the same half of the table with the Swedish player, the Briton being expected to meet Romania’s Victor Hanescu in the second round as both players are directly qualified for the next term, as well as all the main favorites.
David Ferrer, who has already won two tournaments in Auckland and Acapulco, and will surely chase his first Masters in Miami. Seventh ATP Tomas Berdych who has had plenty of medical problems this season will try for a break through in Florida, the Czech being expected to play either Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain or French Adrian Mannarino. Andy Roddick, who is also stripped of any title this season, will play the winner between Pablo Cuevas and Michael Berrer in the second term.
Ninth-ATP Fernando Verdasco could meet compatriot Pablo Andujar in the second round of the Masters. Andujar meets Bernard Tomic of Australia in the opener and has plenty of chances to set a Spanish second round. Finally, tenth ATP Jurgen Melzer of Austria is to confront either Philipp Petzschner or Florent Serra in the second round of the Masters.
Nikolay Davydenko and the US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro are not qualified directly into the second term, the two being expected to face Kevin Anderson and Ricardo Mello respectively in the opener. Feliciano Lopez will also have to play the opener, the Spaniard playing Richards Berankis of Lithuania in the first round.
Miami Masters 1st round fixtures:
Andreas Seppi – Mischa Zverev
Teymuraz Gabashvili – Daniel Brands
Florian Mayer – Ivo Karlovic
Carlos Berlocq – Jack Sock
Janko Tipsarevic – Robin Haase
Somdev Devvarman – Potito Starace
Benjamin Becker – Marcel Granollers
Julien Benneteau – Daniel Gimeno
Santiago Giraldo – Igor Andreev
Bernard Tomic – Pablo Andujar
Jarkko Nieminen – Mikhail Kukushkin
Miami Masters Prize money and points:
Winner – $611,000 and 1000 points ATP
Runner-up – $298,200 and 600 points ATP
Semi finalist – $149,450 and 360 points ATP
Quarter finalist – $76,195 and 180 points ATP
R16 – $40,160 and 90 points ATP
R32 – $21,495 and 45 points ATP
R64 – $11,605 and 25 points ATP
R96 – $7,115 and 10 points ATP
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