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Miami
Mehul/Krose did much better here, knocking off the 4th-seeded Rhodes brothers before running into the dominant #1 team of Aspelin/Cordasic in the semifinals. They played well here also, overcoming 17 aces in a 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 upset that ranks as their best win in quite some time. Couldn't get past Zopp/Srbulovic in the final, but still a fine run that shows they can still be relevant on occasion. After a good first-round win, Shyam Senepathy went out with just three games won against Browne in the second. Too much to overcome there.
(24) Xavier Dorso of France was the only seed to lose his first match(second round) against Russia's Efim Golubev. Nikitin barely survived, 6-7(5), 7-5, 7-5 against Fandino, but he made it through. Then the Ukrainian pulled off the biggest upset of the third round, taking out #7 Hsuang-tsung Teng in three sets as well. Dick Blake and Ariel Borja were mild but not-really surprises, two of the five Americans to move on at the expense of Espinoza and 11th-ranked Milos Schmucker. Mooljee had a testy one against Beno Duhr, but came through 6-4, 6-4. To wrap up the first week, Alexey Nikitin kept right on trucking, this time a stunningly routine victory over hardcourt specialist Rosenberg. Throw another Top 10 win on the fire for him. Ruben Piazzola outlasted #5 Zarco in an interesting third-set tiebreak between two clay specialists on hardcourt, while my guys both survived identical 7-5, 6-3 scorelines. Kronecker and Blake provided the unsuccessful opposition there.
Six expected players plus Piazzola(14th) and Nikitin(31st) on to the quarterfinals. Those two played Kaspar and Dircx respectively, with the sort of straight-set exits you might expect. Johnny Browne went out to Fangio in a pretty close one, while Prakash Mooljee may be the higher-ranked player for now, but he was treated to a rude, 6-3, 6-2 dismissal by Dudwadkar. Three out of the last four for him, but he still trails 7-4 in the overall H2H.
Gillo Fangio was the next to feel Kaspar's wrath(five games surrendered) in the semifinals. On the other side, a topsy-turvy match ended with Ritwik Dudwadkar prevailing over Dircx, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3! That he put him in the title match ... where he also won just five games. Well done to get this far though, it was just his second victory ever over his generational rival from the Netherlands; their first meeting since Wimbledon last year.
Meanwhile, Sushant Chiba claimed another amateur title(though he lost in doubles qualifying) at an amateur in Kitzbuhel. He'll need at least one more of those.
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