The Miami Open wraps up this weekend. The championship matches are still left to be played. What are the big takeaways from the tournament in terms of disappointing players? Two selections emerge from both the WTA and ATP Tours.
1. Agnieszka Radwanska
This is a broken record, but it doesn’t mean the point should cease to be made: Agnieszka Radwanska is running out of ideas. This is a damning verdict, because Radwanska is known as a clever player, the kind of player who outfoxes and outthinks opponents with a crafty slice here or a drop shot there or a lob there. Radwanska’s racquet skills are exceptional. She can hit various kinds of shots and mix the pace on the ball to throw opponents off balance. Yet, when she goes up against a power merchant such as Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, she quickly runs out of inspiration and ways to redirect the ball (or the flow of the match itself). Radwanska has to find solutions if her career is to find a special moment which will change the way in which she will be remembered.
2. Dominic ThiemThe Austrian’s best surface is clay, but his big game should translate well to hardcourts, and it didn’t in Miami. Thiem was bounced early by Borna Coric, and while Coric is talented, Coric then lost to Adrian Mannarino, making this loss look a lot worse. Thiem played reasonably well in Indian Wells, where he reached the quarterfinals, but he needed a similar run in Miami to show that he’s ready to stay at the top of men’s tennis throughout the year. Thiem now needs a huge clay season even more than he did before he came to Miami.
3. Angelique Kerber
It is hard to deny or avoid: Kerber is playing like a player who feels a lot of pressure as the World No. 1. She is carrying herself around the court as though being number one is a burden and a chore, not a thrilling challenge or an exciting opportunity to continue to outplay the rest of the WTA Tour.
Kerber was so vibrant and relentless last season as she chased Serena Williams and Grand Slam titles, of which she won two. This year, Kerber isn’t getting close to the finish line at important tournaments. Venus Williams clearly outclassed her in the quarterfinals, and Venus wasn’t even serving all that well. Kerber, on her game, shouldn’t have had any problems in this matchup. Or even if she was playing moderately well, she should have put up a fight. Instead, she was swept away quite easily.
Kerber doesn’t have a lot of stick on her shots. She is simply not a liberated player right now. She has to snap out of this funk.
4. Grigor Dimitrov
The man who very nearly beat Rafael Nadal in a five-hour Australian Open semifinal was outclassed by Jack Sock in Indian Wells – that match was a cliffhanger which went down to the very end of a long final set. In Miami, Dimitrov lost his first match of the tournament in straight sets to unheralded Guido Pella. That’s a terrible result and an abrupt cessation of the generally good play Dimitrov had been demonstrating. The Bulgarian needs to regain his winning edge on clay, in order to build a 2017 season he can be proud of.
5. Milos Raonic
It’s been a very rough year for Canadian Milos Raonic. Remember, he finished the 2016 campaign having gone 52-17 with one singles title and over $5.5 million in prize money. This year, he’s been banged up and that’s been a big problem. He looked like he was finally healthy and ready to announce his arrival onto the 2017 scene with a start at the Miami Open. However, he was only able to last into the third round. While he was the No. 3 seed at the event, he was forced to withdraw with a hamstring injury.
There were high hopes that Raonic could do well at this event as Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic both skipped it. However, Raonic proved to be a disappointment and with the hamstring injury, his future is again in doubt.
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