It’s now Day 5 of the 2015 Miami Open Masters, and Rafael Nadal is looking to break Novak Djokovic winning streak at this open and take his first trophy from here. He’ll be going up against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, and all eyes will be watching to see if he can get back on track this year. Yes, I know he’s at number 3, but it’s been a struggle over the past couple years with injuries, and we know that tennis is very much a mental game that can take you out before you even know it. It’s had it’s ups and downs for Nadal, but he’s pulled through before, and he’s that one you just push for. He reminds me of the days when Andre Agassi was on a winning streak and then suddenly losing matches surprising everyone but then rebounding again.
Also headlining today’s Sunday matches are Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych.
Four of the world’s Top 10 players feature on Day 5 of the Miami Open: No. 3 Rafael Nadal, No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 8 Stan Wawrinka and No. 9 Tomas Berdych. Nadal continues his push for a maiden title against compatriot Fernando Verdasco; two-time champion Murray takes on Santiago Giraldo; Wawrinka clashes with the in-form Adrian Mannarino; and Berdych faces off against a resurgent Bernard Tomic.
NADAL CHASING A FIRST: Nadal is visiting Miami for the 11th time, but is still chasing his first title here. He is a four-time runner-up: 2005 (l. to Federer), 2008 (l. to Davydenko), 2011 and 2014 (l. to Djokovic in both). This is the only tournament he has not won with this many attempts.
CLOSING IN ON 500: Murray is closing in on a significant landmark. The Scot needs just two more victories to join the ‘500 Wins Club’ (498-155). He would become the ninth active player and the 46th man in the Open Era to achieve the feat. Murray surpassed Tim Henman’s haul of 496 career match wins with his QF victory over Feliciano Lopez in Indian Wells last week, taking sole ownership of Britain’s Open Era match-win record.
CARRYING THE FLAG: Jack Sock is one of two American men in the 3R (also John Isner) and the only one on today’s order of play. The world No. 45 returned to competitive action at Indian Wells for the first time since undergoing hip surgery in mid-December. In the Californian desert, Sock reached the 4R at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time and he will be looking to replicate the feat when he takes on Dominic Thiem today.
RANKING RISERS: Viktor Troicki, Bernard Tomic and Juan Monaco are all into the 3R, with the latter two in action today. They are among the biggest ranking risers in the Top 50 this year. Tomic’s jump of 27 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings puts him at World No. 29, while Monaco’s leap of 16 spots places him at World No. 46.
DAY 5 FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS
STADIUM
[27] Santiago Giraldo (COL) vs [3] Andy Murray (GBR)
FedEx Head2Head: Murray leads 2-1
Last meeting: 2014 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid Clay R16 Giraldo 6-3 6-2
•   Giraldo finished strong to see off Robin Haase 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 in his opening match.
•   Giraldo is making his seventh main draw appearance in Miami. This is the first time he has reached the 3R here.
•   Giraldo’s best showing this season was a SF run on clay in São Paulo (l. to Cuevas).
•   Giraldo has a 1-21 record vs. Top 10 opponents with his lone victory coming against today’s opponent, Murray, on clay in Madrid last year.
•   In 2014, Giraldo finished in the Top 50 for the first time at a year-end high No. 32, highlighted by reaching a second career ATP World Tour final in Barcelona (d. 3 Top 30 players, l. to Nishikori).
•   Murray opened his account with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Donald Young, converting on four of his seven BP opportunities during the 83-minute encounter.
•   Murray is making his 10th appearance in Miami. He has reached the final three times, winning the title in 2009 (d. Djokovic) and 2013 (d. Ferrer) and finishing runner-up in 2012 (l. to Djokovic).
•   Last week at Indian Wells, Murray advanced to an ATP Masters 1000 SF for the first time in two years with wins over Vasek Pospisil, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Adrian Mannarino and F. Lopez (l. to Djokovic).
•   Murray’s victory over Lopez last week was the 497th match win of his career, giving him sole ownership of the British Open Era match wins record, putting him clear of Tim Henman (496).
•   Murray opened his season by reaching the Australian Open final for the fourth time (l. to Djokovic). He fell to 2-6 in Grand Slam finals.
•   In February, Murray lost in the QF of Rotterdam (l. to Simon) and Dubai (l. to Coric).
•   In 2014, Murray finished in the Top 6 for the seventh year in a row after extending his run of winning at least one title to nine straight years. He advanced to the QF or better 15 times, winning three titles.
[29] Fernando Verdasco (ESP) vs [2] Rafael Nadal (ESP)
FedEx Head2Head: Nadal leads 13-1
Last meeting: 2012 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid Clay R16 Verdasco 6-3 3-6 7-5
•   Verdasco advanced to the 3R with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over James Duckworth. The Spaniard had been on a three-match losing streak in Miami.
•   Verdasco is making his 13th appearance at the Miami Open. He is a two-time quarter-finalist here, reaching the final eight in both 2009 (l. to Murray) and 2010 (l. to Berdych).
•   Verdasco’s best showing of the year came at the inaugural event in Quito last month when he made the SF (l. to F. Lopez in 2 TB sets). He also reached the 3R at the Aus Open (l. to Djokovic).
•   Verdasco has an 18-77 career record vs. Top 10 opponents. His last Top 10 win came at Indian Wells last year when he saw off world No. 9 Richard Gasquet in the 3R.
•   In 2014, Verdasco finished in the Top 40 for an 11th year in a row with a sixth career ATP World Tour title in Houston in April (d. Almagro), ending a four-year wait for a trophy.
•   Nadal kick-started his bid for a maiden Miami crown with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of compatriot Nicolas Almagro. The world No. 3 saved all three BPs he faced during the 90-minute clash.
•   Nadal is making his 11th visit to Miami. He is a four-time runner-up at this tournament, losing the final in 2005 (l. to Federer), 2008 (l. to Davydenko), 2011 and 2014 (l. to Djokovic in both).
•   At Indian Wells, Nadal saw off Igor Sijsling, Donald Young and Gilles Simon to reach the QF before losing to Milos Raonic after holding three MPs. It was his first loss to a Canadian.
•   Nadal lost his opening match of the season, 1R in Doha (l. to Michael Berrer), before reaching the QF of the Australian Open (l. to Berdych).
•   After reaching the Rio de Janeiro SF (l. to Fognini), Nadal won the 46th clay court title of his career in Buenos Aires (d. Monaco), just three short ofGuillermo Vilas’ record clay court title haul of 49.
•   Nadal’s victory in Buenos Aires ended a nine-month trophy drought dating back to Roland Garros 2014 (d. Djokovic). His last hard court title came in January 2014 in Doha (d. Monfils).
•   In 2014, Nadal finished in the Top 3 for the ninth time in the past 10 years (except 2012), capturing four titles in seven finals. The Spaniard extended his streak of winning at least one Grand Slam title per year to a record 10th year in a row with his ninth victory at Roland Garros. His 14 Slam titles are tied second all-time with Pete Sampras, behind Roger Federer(17).
GRANDSTAND
[7] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs [28] Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
FedEx Head2Head: First ATP World Tour meeting
•   Wawrinka took two hours and 51 minutes to get past Carlos Berlocq in his opening match, defeating the Argentine 6-7(9), 7-5, 6-2 despite landing only 38% of his first serves.
•   Wawrinka celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday.
•   Wawrinka is making his seventh appearance at the Miami Open. He has never gone past the 4R.
•   Wawrinka is looking to bounce back this week after an opening round loss to Robin Haase in Indian Wells.
•   Wawrinka captured the eighth and ninth ATP titles of his career, in Chennai (d. Aljaz Bedene) and Rotterdam (d. Berdych) either side of a SF appearance at the Australian Open (l. to Djokovic). In his last event before Indian Wells, he was beaten in the Marseille QF (l. to Stakhovsky).
•   In 2014, Wawrinka finished in the Top 10 for the second year in a row at a year-end high No. 4. He captured his first Grand Slam crown at Australian Open (d. Nadal), first ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo (d. Federer) and won the Davis Cup with Switzerland for the first time.
•   Mannarino got his tournament under way with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win overAdrian Mannarino. The rain-interrupted match was played across Friday and Saturday.
•   Mannarino is back in Miami for the third time. This is the first time he has gone beyond the 2R.
•   Mannarino reached the 4R at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time at Indian Wells with wins over Mischa Zverev, Fabio Fognini and Ernests Gulbis (l. to Murray).
•   Mannarino rose to a career-high world No. 32 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday.
•   Mannarino opened his season in Auckland where he reached a maiden ATP World Tour final (l. to Vesely). He also reached the Delray Beach SF in February (l. to Karlovic), dropping to 1-3 in SFs.
•   Mannarino has an 0-12 record vs. Top 10 opponents.
•   In 2014, Mannarino finished in the Top 50 for the first time, winning 16 tour-level matches during the year – the second-most in his career.
[17] Gael Monfils (FRA) vs [11] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
FedEx Head2Head: Tsonga leads 4-1
Last meeting: 2013 Tokyo Hard R32 J-W Tsonga 6-3 7-6(8)
•   Monfils returned from a three-week injury lay-off with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) win over Filip Krajinovic.
•   Monfils is making his eighth appearance at the Miami Open. The Frenchman, who has reached the 4R here twice, fell to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his opening match last year.
•   After a 2R loss to Jerzy Janowicz at the Australian Open, Monfils reached the QF-or-better at all three tournaments he contested in February: Montpellier (l. to Gasquet in SF), Rotterdam (l. to Berdych in QF) and Marseille (l. to Simon in final).
•   Monfils’ last competitive outing came at the beginning of March, when he defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber in France’s Davis Cup World Group 1R win over Germany.
•   In 2014, Monfils finished in the Top 20 for the first time since 2011 and fifth time overall, winning a fifth career title in Montpellier (d. Gasquet). Also advanced to QFs at Roland Garros and US Open.
•   Tsonga came through his first match of the season unscathed on Saturday, seeing off American Tim Smyczek 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
•   Tsonga is back at the Miami Open for the eighth time. He is a three-time quarter-finalist here: 2009 (l. to Djokovic), 2010 (l. to Nadal) and 2012 (l. to Nadal).
•   Tsonga returns to competition this week for the first time since falling toStan Wawrinka in the Davis Cup final. He missed the opening 10 weeks of the season with a right arm injury.
•   In 2014, Tsonga finished in the Top 15 for a seventh year in a row, highlighted by winning a second career ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto. He became the seventh active player to win multiple ATP Masters 1000 titles (also Paris ‘08) and the first to beat four straight Top 10 opponents at that tournament level since Guillermo Canas in Toronto 2002.
[8] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs [25] Bernard Tomic (AUS)
FedEx Head2Head: Berdych leads 3-0
Last meeting: 2015 Australian Open Hard R16 Tomas Berdych 6-2 7-6(3) 6-2
•   Berdych notched his 20th match win of the season, overcoming teenager Hyeon Chung 6-3, 6-4.
•   Berdych is returning to Miami for the 11th time. He was a beaten finalist here in 2010 (l. to Roddick) and a semi-finalist in 2008 (l. to Nadal) and 2014 (w/o vs. Nadal).
•   Berdych arrived in Florida after a QF defeat to Roger Federer at Indian Wells.
•   Berdych finished runner-up in Doha in the opening week of the season (l. to Ferrer) before putting together a SF run at the Australian Open, where he defeated world No. 3 Nadal in the QF, ending a 17-match losing streak against the Spaniard (l. to Murray).
•   In February, Berdych advanced to the final in Rotterdam (l. to Wawrinka in 3 sets) and the semi-final in Dubai (l. to Djokovic in 3 sets).
•   All five of Berdych’s losses this season have come against Top 10 opposition.
•   In 2014, Berdych finished in the Top 10 for the fifth year in a row, winning two titles – Rotterdam and Stockholm – in a career-best five finals.
•   Tomic advanced to the 3R at the Miami Open for the first time thanks to a 7-6(6), 7-5 victory over American qualifier Austin Krajicek.
•   Tomic is making his fifth appearance in Miami. He had never gone beyond the 2R before this year.
•   Tomic advanced to an ATP Masters 1000 QF for the first time at Indian Wells last week before withdrawing ahead of his clash with Djokovic, citing a back injury.
•   Tomic has a 4-26 record against Top 10 opponents. He posted his first Top 10 win in almost two years at Indian Wells, defeating world No. 8 David Ferrer in the 3R.
•   Tomic has reached the QF or better at six of the seven tournaments he has contested this year, with his best showing a SF appearance in Delray Beach (l. to Young). The only exception was the Australian Open where he fell in the 4R (l. to Berdych).
•   In 2014, Tomic put together a fourth Top 60 season in succession after winning a second ATP World Tour title in Bogota in July (d. Karlovic) – his first off Australian soil. He was the lowest-ranked winner of the year (No. 124) and the youngest (21).