Live tennis Miami Open day 8: Zverev meets Norwegian “unknown”, Sinner prodigy fights “dark horse”

(Tennis news) Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner will both face underdogs in the quarter-final series.

Alexander Zverev – Casper Ruud: 8am, March 31, men’s singles quarterfinals

Ruud was once considered only known to play on clay, but has played quite consistently on hard courts to show that he is not a “bad” version of Nadal. However, this time the challenge for the Norwegian player is very big, he is also in the top 10 like Zverev at this time, but the level between them is quite far apart.

Zverev faces a Casper Ruud who is also in the top 10 in the world but is only strong on clay

In both meetings on hard courts last year, Zverev defeated Ruud very easily when displaying outstanding tactical and batting skills from start to finish. Zverev might only have to worry about this game if he comes on to the field and doesn’t perform to his best, especially on serve, but Ruud hasn’t shown himself to have any powerful weapons when playing on hard courts.

Jannik Sinner – Francisco Cerundolo: 2h, 31/3, men’s singles quarterfinals

Sinner made it to the Miami final last year and was rated as the upper hand in the cup game but failed. But this year he will probably feel more confident when his bracket is not too dangerous, moreover, the Italian prodigy has shown more bravery when saving 2 match points in 2 different matches, as well as defeating him. Nick Kyrgios quite convincingly.

Sinner’s opponent was an all-around surprise this year, with Cerundolo beating Tallon Griekspoor, Reilly Opelka, Gael Monfils and Frances Tiafoe despite being underdogs in all four of those matches. The Argentinian’s playstyle relies on very strong forehands and high accuracy, so Sinner can completely be surprised. However, Cerundolo has yet to show many other pieces, so his journey is not far away.

Petra Kvitova – Igo Swiatek: 6:00, March 31, women’s singles quarterfinals

The most notable women’s singles match of the 8th day, they had never met, but Kvitova with a record of “cheeky” will be a really tough opponent for Swiatek. The Polish female tennis player is about to become the leader of the WTA rankings and has reached 4 quarterfinals of the tournaments in 2022 (semi-finals of the Australian Open & Adelaide, champion of Doha & Indian Wells), she has yet to face a single match. No annoying opponent since the beginning of the tournament and currently has a record of 23 wins – 3 losses since the beginning of the year.

Swiatek is in the form of chopping bamboo, but Kvitova has long-term combat experience

Kvitova won relatively hard 7-6 6-4 against Veronika Kudermetova, leading 0-4 in the second set but won 6 games in a row. She came to Miami with a record of 6 wins – 7 losses since the beginning of the year but has played well to become the oldest player to reach the quarterfinals at the age of 32. She has never been in the semi-finals of this tournament, and in the past year has also only entered the tournament. semi-finals in minor tournaments such as Bad Homburg or Ostrava, but the Grand Slam revival of the Czech tennis player took place only two years ago and she still cannot be underestimated.

Paula Badosa – Jessica Pegula: 0:00, March 31, women’s singles quarterfinals

This is the most successful Miami Open campaign of Paula Badosa’s career, but she almost gave up against Linda Fruhvirtova. The score was 6-2 6-3 but in fact in the Badosa match there was a health problem that caused the match to be delayed, as well as facing 6 break points from a 16-year-old opponent (but saved up to 5).

While Badosa is having an upbeat season with the title in Sydney and a good performance in Indian Wells, Pegula showed more lasting improvement in nearly 2 years as she has achieved quarter-finals and semi-finals at the Masters 1000 tournaments and especially this year’s Australian Open quarterfinals, taking her to 14th in the world. WTA rankings. Pegula won convincingly both former champion Sloane Stephens and 17th seed Elena Rybakina while only having to play 24 minutes in victory over Anhelina Kalinina, so Pegula’s advantage will be not small.