March Mania Part II - 7 Points on The Miami Open

Featuring:  The 7-6s of Muguruza in March

1. Fate of the Miami Open. 

It would be strange to say the Miami Open in Orlando, FL, or the Miami Open in Shanghai or the Miami Open in Buenos Aires. Well, along with Orlando, China and South America are other locations that are being considered for the Miami Open because the local community can't get it together to support a practically legendary event that has a history as rich as any tournament in the US - a history so rich in great players and great matches that it is beyond the scope of this modest post to get into. But I can't help but mention a few notables:

• Steffi Graf won the first two titles in 1987 (the year the Miami Open became the Miami Open) and 1988, and went on to win the titles in 1994, 1995, and 1996.
• In 1999 Venus and Serena met in the first all-sister final with Venus winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
• In 2005 Kim Clijsters became the first unseeded women's player to win the title, winning 7 matches while dropping only 27 games en route to the championship. She defeated the 5th seed, the 4th seed, the first seed, Amelie Mauresmo, and the 2nd seed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova won the title in 2006 defeating Maria Sharapova.
• In 2007 Serena Williams recorded one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over World No.1 Justine Henin.
• On the name and sponsor side of things, the Miami Open became the Sony Open in 2007. Sony remained the major sponsor until 2015 when the tournament became The Miami Open presented by Itau, the largest privately owned bank in Latin America.(It seems banks like to sponsor tennis tournaments.)
• In 2016 Victoria Azarenka (now momma Azarenka) claimed her third Miami Open Title defeating the 2017 Indian Wells runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets.

The question is whether or not The Miami Open will be able to continue at its present location in Key Biscayne, FL. The situation is this. The Miami Open is played at the Crandon Park Tennis Complex located in Dade County. The land was leased to Dade County by the Matheson family and has seven more years to run. However, a $50 million badly-needed project to upgrade the facilities was halted by a recent lawsuit by Matheson declaring that the family intent was to keep a public park from turning into a commercial development zone. The settlement agreement with the county prohibits the tournament from building any additional structures on stadium grounds. There's the rub because the tournament badly needs to upgrade the facilities to remain competitive with the other high-level tournaments. Although a Miami-Dade County ballot item about the renovations passed with 73% of the vote, the owner of the event, IMG (a global sports and event company based in NYC), is looking for a possible new home for the tournament. However, the community, which benefits greatly from the tournament, the fans, the players, and the the rich history of this tournament are all optimistic some arrangement can be made to keep the tournament in Key Biscayne. Anyway, that was the state of affairs as of the end of the year.

2. Wildcards and Withdrawals:

• Wildcards:
• Amanda Anisimova - USA, Runner-Up at the Junior French Open
• Paula Bidosa Gibert - Spain, Current French Open Girl's Champion
• Ashleigh Barty - Australia
• Nicole Gibbs - USA
• Beatriz Haddad Maia - Brazil, one doubles title on the WTA tour, and six singles and six doubles titles on the ITF circuit
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands - USA
• Ajla Tomljanovic - Croatia
• Natalia Vikhlyantseva - Russia
• Withdrawals:
• Victoria Azarenka - replaced by Mandy Minella
• Camila Giorgi - replaced by Belinda Bencic
• Petra Kvitova - replaced by Carina Witthoft
• Sloane Stevens - replaced by Jennifer Brady
• Serena Williams - replaced by Wang Qiang

3. Prize Money and Ranking Points: (Please note that the prize money distribution is the same for both the men and women but, other than the ranking points for the winner, the ranking points for the women are higher.)

• Prize Money:
• Men's and Women's Singles:
• Winner: $1,175,505
• Runner Up: $573,680
• Semifinalist: $287,515
• Quarterfinalist: $146, 575
• Fourth Round: $77,265
• Third Round: $41,350
• Second Round: $22,325
• First Round: $13,609
• Men's and Women's Doubles:
• Winning Team: $385,170
• Runners Up: $187, 970
• Semifinalist: $94,220
• Quarterfinalist: $48,010
• Round of 16: $25, 320
• First Round: $13,550
• Ranking Points - Women's Singles Only (Men in Parenthesis)
• Winner: 1000 
• Runner Up: 700 (600)
• Semifinalist: 450 (360)
• Quarterfinalist: 250 (180)
• Fourth Round: 140 (90)
• Third Round: 80 (45)
• Second Round: 50 (25)
• First Round: 5 (10)

4. The Miami Open and the Williams Sisters.

Eleven of the last twenty Miami Opens dating from 1997 have been won by one of the Williams sisters - Serena has won eight and Venus three. Serena has won the tournament three years in a row twice: 2002-2004 and 2013-2015. Over the 7 years 1998-2004, except for 2000 (Hingis), either Serena or Venus won the title.  A tad bit of domination there I'd say. The other winners during that period were: Azarenka (3), Clijsters (2), Hingis (2), and Radwanska and Kuznetsova one each. 

Although Serena will not be playing The Miami Open 2017 because of injury, playing well generally in 2017 and coming off a quarterfinal run at Indian Wells, Venus is in good form to continue the tradition. Personally, I'd like to see that.

5. The Battle for #1. There is no battle. With Serena's withdrawal, regardless of how things go down on the courts of Miami, Kerber will still emerge with the #1 ranking. If Kerber falls in the second round, she'll still have enough points to maintain a very slim margin over Serena. Even if Pliskova at #3 wins the title in Miami, she still would not have enough points to move ahead of Serena. That's the story on that.

6. The "Sunshine Double." To validate this name I checked out the number of sunny days per year at both Indian Wells and Key Biscayne. It's much more sunshiney in Indian Wells than in Key Biscayne - Indian Wells: 353 sunny days per year, Key Biscayne: only 249 sunny days per year.  I don't want to put a damper on the upcoming proceedings, but that means that approximately 1 out of every 3 days it will rain or be cloudy in Key Biscayne.
With all that nonsense said, the post reader might be interested to know that there are only three players who have won Indian Wells and Miami back to back - Steffi (Stefani now) Graf in 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters in 2005, and, of course, Victoria Azarenka last year in 2016. The newly crowned champion of Indian Wells, Elena Vesnina, has the chance to be the fourth.  Good Luck Elena. (In the Maimi Draw she has a bye and then either C.C. Bellis or Ajla Tomljanovic second round, with Wickmayer, Safarova, or Gavrilova in the third round. She is in Cibulkova's section of the draw.).
"So what will it be buddy? I'll have a Sunshine Double."

7. The 7-6s of Muguruza in March. Garbine Muguruza seems to be stuck in 7-6 losses in March. Last year at the Miami Open, in R16, she lost to Victoria Azarenka, 7-6,7-6 in a match which I feel, shot for shot, was the best tennis match I have ever seen. Azarenka went on to win the tournament. Then this year in the quarterfinals in the heat of Indian Wells she lost to Karolina Pliskova, 7-6, 7-6. I was hoping for the sake of an interesting symmetry for this post point that Pliskova would also go on to win the title, but she didn't. Thanks a lot Karolina!  Anyway, so now we'll see if Muguruza can shake the 7-6 March curse. In the draw, after her bye, she has either McHale or Beck and then Errani, Bencic or Zhang. Some other toughies in her section of the quarter include Sevastova, Puig, and Wozniacki.  Good Luck Garbine. If you get another 7-6, may you be on the winning side. (Update: Muguruza lost to Wozniacki in the quarters. She retired after the first set - the score: 7-6!)

Here is a 12 minute clip of that 2016 Miami Open match between Muguruza and Azarenka:

So that's it. The draw for The Miami Open is up for your review. Make your picks and see how prescient you are.

Anyway, that's how I see it.