The Round of 16 in Miami Open delivered the great match-ups between the top ATP players. The fans could witness two clashes between world's top 10 players and the others, which where electrifying on paper. This not converted into amazing three-sets battles, which were the case in some the previous rounds, but there were still some emotions and interesting names making their great runs into quarterfinals.
Emil Ruusuvuori celebrates his best career's achievement, moving into ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal for the first time, after defeating Botic Van De Zandschulp 4-6 6-4 7-5. The Dutch, who eliminated the tournament's #3 seed Casper Ruud in previous round, opened the match with clinching the first set 6-4. Van De Zandschulp was very close to make it through in straight sets, leading with a break advantage 3-1 and 4-3. The Finn showed a great spirit, not giving up and trying to fight back, which worked out really well. He won 6 games in a row since being 3-4 down in second set, forcing the decider on the road, and moving up to 3-0 lead in 3rd set with a break lead. Ruusuvuori was struggling a bit to seal his biggest career's victory. He needed to defend a breakpoint in 7th game, but did not manage to do so in 9th game, once serving for the win within a score 5-4. The Dutch came back and was close to tip the scales on his side. The Finn was struggling again in the 11th game, facing another two breakpoints, but made a huge hold after 4 deuces. It was possibly the biggest hold in his career, as he followed the blow and broke Van De Zandschulp to love in 12th game, advancing into quarterfinals.
Christopher Eubanks has also achieved his best career's run, advancing to the ATP Masters 1000 QFs for the first time. The American defeated Adrian Mannarino in two tie-breaks. It was quite an interesting match from the open play perspective, as Mannarino produced 9 breakpoints to just 1 made by Eubanks. The Frenchman was not effective tough, as he converted only one from it, and both sets needed to be settled in tiebreak, where the American was better in both cases.
Karen Khachanov made a succesful revenge on Stefanos Tsitsipas for the lose in their previous meeting in Australian Open semifinal, which was won by the Greek in 4 sets. The tournament's seed #2 was not as clear favorite this time, coming back after injury problems and unsucessful Indian Wells campaign. The Russian capitalized on it. He won 7-6(4) 6-4 with a flawless performance, as Tsitsipas did not manage to create any single breakpoint here. It was a miserable performance from the Greek in all areas, who had just 58% first serve accuracy as well.
Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner took the pressure of the favourites in their clashes against other top 10 opponents really well. Fritz was a dominant force against Holger Rune, winning 6-3 6-4. Sinner continues his good run of form this year, moving into quarters after routine win against Andrey Rublev, 6-2 6-4.
Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev are still on the run to repeat their final clash from last week's Indian Wells. The world's number one had quite more challenging task on paper while facing Tommy Paul. The Spaniard scored a straight set win tough, winning 6-4 6-4 without a trouble. Medvedev, as expected, routined Quentin Halys 6-4 6-2.
Here are the ATP Round of 16 highlights:
