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Miami Masters
The final eight did have one unexpected crasher this time out, but it wasn't exactly a huge surprise; Johann Przalowik edged past Toni Bardales 7-6(2), 7-5 to book his reservation. There were a couple of other pretty close calls, but ultimately the rest of the quarterfinalists were the expected group. Faille was challenged once again but this time narrowly pulled through against recent IW finalist Oleg Urazov in three sets. All of the matches were competitive, and only one failed to go the distance; Jochen Weigle seems to have lost the magic, bowing out against Cananis. Xanthos over Solitris Papadias and Polychroniadis against Przalowik both were tight enough that they could have gone the other way.
That trend continued in the semifinals, where Ben Faille showed for certain that Indian Wells was not a fluke; he's in a serious slump, and lost in a third-set tiebreaker 7-1 against Xanthos. A few months ago, that would have been nigh unimaginable. Leon Polychroniadis couldn't repeat his showing, losing to Renke Cananis 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4. Themis Xanthos got the last laugh in the final with a straight-sets win over Cananis, concluding a very unpredictable month at the two big US Masters. Xanthos won his 7th Masters Shield, and while it doesn't change the official pecking order, it does raise a lot of questions going forward.
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