We take a look at selected fixtures from the WTA Tour’s Miami Open taking place at Hard Rock Stadium on the 20th of March.
WTA Premier Mandatory | Miami Open Preview
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, United States, Outdoor Hardcourts
Selected Round of 128 Matches – 20 March 2019
Bianca Andreescu 7/20 vs Irina-Camelia Begu 2/1
Eugenie Bouchard’s reign as the highest profile Canadian tennis star on the women’s tour is well and truly over following Bianca Andreescu’s unreal victory at Indian Wells. There we were thinking that Osaka’s victory last surprising last season. The 18-year-old Canadian became the first wildcard to ever win the Indian Wells crown. She beat a stellar cast that included Kerber, Svitolina and Muguruza. It was just an exclamation mark to what has been a devastating six months for the Canadian. The former two-time Gram Slam champion in junior doubles starting to pick up momentum on the ITF Tour towards the end of last season. She won two events and started the year in a similar vein. She reached the final of the Auckland Open and went on to win the Oracle Challenger Series event. She then reached the semis in Mexico prior to this wondrous feat. One wonders whether the young lady may feel a tad jaded by her exertions in recent weeks.
The 28-year-old journeywoman Irina-Camelia Begu is a player with immense experience who will understand the enormity of the task at hand. She will also understand the difficulties facing Andreescu in replicating her form from last week. Camelia Begu has four WTA titles to her name, including consecutive titles in every year from 2015 through 2017. She performs well on both clay and hardcourts but actually owns three titles on the harder surfaces. This means she will prove ultra-competitive this week. It must be said, her form thus far this year has been poor. She reached the quarterfinals in Hobart and hasn’t really registered anything since. But her Indian Wells opening round defeat was notable in that she lost to a certain fancied Canadian.
Their only ever meeting was in the opening round of Andreescu’s glorious run to victory in Indian Wells. And Camelia Begu pushed the Canadian to breaking point in a seesaw three setter that could have gone either way. That performance coupled with Andreescu’s potential post-victory malaise makes Camelia Begu an attractive proposition at 2/1.
Victoria Azarenka (3/10) vs Dominika Cibulkova (9/4)
This is promising to be a titanic clash that has a whiff of 2012 nostalgia to it. Two-time Major Champion Victoria Azarenka is returning to an event where she has recorded much success. She will have probably welcomed a return to more familiar climes, not this new Hard Rock Stadium. The three-time Miami Open Champion is coming off a fairly routine defeat to old nemesis Serena Williams at Indian Wells. Clearly, the prolonged custody battle that she was immersed in has had a huge effect on Azarenka, not to mention the litany of injuries that have afflicted her. Her performance in Mexico will have given her some confidence: she reached the quarterfinals while she captured the double’s title. Azarenka may see this return to Miami as a chance to regain some lost career momentum.
The 29-year-old Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova is of the Azarenka vintage and is similarly accustomed to performing on the greatest stage. She has reached the quarterfinal of every slam and reached the Aussie Open Final in 2011. The 8-time WTA title winner has battled with consistency in the last few years, though she has the capacity to just spring fantastic results out of nowhere. She reached the final in Strasbourg last season out of nowhere. She would go on to reach the last 8 at Wimbledon before encouraging finishes in Asia towards the end of the year. She fell at the first hurdle last week to teenage sensation Bianca Andreescu – I guess she can find some solace in the fact that she wasn’t the only high profile casualty of the Canadian.
Victoria Azarenka leads the head-to-head 7-5 against Dominika Cibulkova, but that’s only half the story. The Slovakian has won their last four matches. You have to go back all the way to 2012 to find Azarenka’s last victory. But amazingly enough, that victory came in the Miami Masters. Azarenka actually beat Cibulkova in consecutive years in Miami. But Cibulkova looks great value at 9/4 considering Azarenka’s recent form.
