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Miami Masters
This wasn't just a repeat IW; the status quo got upended in Miami, and the biggest question is whether that will be a consistent thing going forward. In the fourth round, Joss Fraikes used a favorable crowd to take the only set Faille would lose for the tournament, though he would win only four games combined in the final two sets as the dominant Frenchman easily rallied. Ene Caballero took an early seat with a fairly surprising straight-sets loss to Przalowik, Leon Polychroniadis took his turn at exiting quickly as well, 7-6(2), 7-6(7) against de Laurentiis. First loss before the quarterfinals for him in over 3 years.
In the quarterfinals, Toni Bardales was competitive at least in his loss to Faille, and there was another classic between Jochen Weigle and Johann Przalowik. They have now played five sets in the last two tournaments. Every set went to a tiebreak. It's hard to get closer than that. Przalowik wins this one in three sets. Themis Xanthos was eliminated in three as well, by Davide de Laurentiis, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Renke Cananis went out to Urazov in a meek third set. Three out of the four matches were upsets. That's not the way this normally goes. Ben Faille ended Przalowik's run including a first-set bagel, and de Laurentiis went out in a close one to Oleg Urazov, 6-4, 7-6(4). It's the second Masters final for the Canadian, but he'd like to forget the final; 6-2, 6-0 defeats are not the stuff that dreams are made of.
There's definitely a growing trend of not so much a changing of the guard, but perhaps a changing of the challengers - a major shift in the power structure below Faille's reign of terror.
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