The 2016 Miami Open witnessed a day of carnage for the top seeds as a slew of former champions made their exit from Crandon Park on Monday. The most shocking of those losses was the fourth-round upset of the top seed and eight-time winner Serena Williams, who had not lost a match at her home tournament since 2012.
Joining the exodus was World No. 2 and 2012 champion Agnieszka Radwanska as well as the defending doubles champions Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis.
On the men’s side, two-time winner Andy Murray squandered a one-set lead to slump to a three-set defeat to Grigor Dimitrov.
Serena’s bizarre performance, riddled by 50 unforced errors, was the biggest talking point of the day as the American saw her 20-match winning streak at Key Biscayne coming to an end at the hands of familiar rival and 2006 titlist Svetlana Kuznetsova. After edging out the first set in a tie-break, the 21-time Grand Slam winner looked way off-colour, lacking in her usual sharpness and fighting spirit.
That galvanized a comeback from the 30-year-old Russian who conceded only three games in the last two sets to carve out a 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-2 win, her first over Williams since 2009.
The World No. 1, quite surprisingly, is yet to win a title since reigning supreme at Cincinnati last August.
Likewise, Andy Murray too played an inexplicably dismal third round match by his lofty standards to go down 7-6(1), 4-6, 3-6 to 28th seed Grigor Dimitrov. The Scot was up 3-1 in the decider from where he fizzled out as the Bulgarian came back to register his first top-10 win since May last year.
Murray’s unforced error count of 54 put paid to his hopes of adding yet another Miami crown.
Earlier in the day, the in-form Radwanska too let go of a brilliant start in her fourth round match to succumb to a 6-2, 4-6, 2-6 defeat to 19th seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland.
Azarenka avoids the upset bug
Former two-time champion Victoria Azarenka was able to avoid the upset bug as she toughed out a 7-6(6), 7-6(4) victory over the fourth seed Garbine Muguruza in a showdown that was billed as the match of the day.
The two aggressive baseliners fought tooth and nail and it was actually the Spaniard who was the more attacking of the two as she belted out 42 winners past Azarenka. But the World No. 8, who has come to Miami fresh off her Indian Wells title win, did not panic despite a late surge from the 22-year-old in the second set.
The former World No. 1, who advances to the quarter-finals, is now an impressive 19-1 this season so far.
Mirza-Hingis bite the dust
Since their incredible 41-match winning streak got snapped at the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open, the numero uno pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis is struggling to recreate their magic. The team, who had won the last three Grand Slams, lost for the third time in five matches as the unseeded duo of Margarita Gasparyan and Monica Niculescu clinched the second round win, 6-4, 6-2.
The top seeds, who were broken five times, will now look to bounce back on the clay as they set their sights on the Volvo Car Open next week where they are the defending champions.
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