ATP Masters Miami: Distortion of competition through the schedule?
The match between Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz is also scheduled for the night session at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami today. That could help one man in particular: Jannik Sinner .
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Mar 30, 2023, 09:47 am
The fact that the rain is having a lasting effect on this year's ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami is due to the force majeure factor. However, the organization of the game plan is very much in the power of the organizers. And that's a little surprising. Because after the game between defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and local hero Taylor Fritz literally fell through on Wednesday, it was scheduled again for today's Thursday night session.
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Why is this significant? Because the opponent of Fritz or Alcaraz is already certain: Jannik Sinner certainly made it through his quarter-finals against Emil Ruusuvuori on Wednesday despite interruptions. But if Alcaraz and Fritz only play that night, the winner has more than a whole day less regeneration time for the semifinals than Sinner.
Sinner beats Fritz, loses to Alcaraz
As with all other 1000s, Miami has long since stopped playing in the best-of-five mode. And - with all due respect to Daniil Medvedev, Christopher Eubanks, Karen Khachanov and Francisco Cerundolo - the encounter between world number one Alcaraz and US number one Fritz is also the most attractive (and therefore for the prime-time TV audience most interesting) game.
But against Jannik Sinner you should be reasonably rested at the start: the South Tyrolean recently beat Fritz in Indian Wells in the quarter-finals, only to lose to Alcaraz in the semi-finals. Overall, the Spaniard only leads 3: 2 with Sinner, so that would definitely be an open game. Under the given circumstances, Sinner could even have an advantage.
Here is the individual tableau in Miami
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