Miami Open 2017: British hopes rest on Konta, as Edmund, Evans, Watson, Bedene lose openers

The ‘sunshine double’ is as upbeat and cheerful a moniker as the biggest non-Grand Slams in tennis could wish for. Yet the name disguises what, in fact, is one of the toughest months in the tennis tour.

Indian Wells and Miami bring together the two most demanding Masters and Premier Mandatory tournaments back-to-back, first in the dry heat of California then in the humid heat of Florida.

Both men and women twice face six or seven rounds—the 32 seeds in each 96-player draw get byes in the first round—in pursuit of big money and big points. But so physically demanding is the double that only the very best have managed to win both in a single sweep. On the women’s side, it has come down to Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka. On the men’s, the likes of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras managed it once, with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer the only ones to do it in consecutive years.

But with so much at stake, and with such different conditions in each tournament, all players hope to produce wins in one or the other, if not both. Which makes the first-round results at the Miami Open doubly disappointing for the British contingent.

In Indian Wells, there was certainly some bad luck in the draw for the five Britons. Daniel Evans, who reached a career-high 41 this month from 67 at the start of the year, had been showing just what a talent he is in making the Sydney final and then the fourth round at the Australian Open. In Dubai, he followed an opening win against Dustin Brown with a three-set loss to No12 Gael Monfils, and in Indian Wells, ran into No5 Kei Nishikori in his second match.

In Miami, Evans might have faced Nishikori again in the third round, and certainly on paper, he would have expected to come through his opener against the 20-year-old #NextGen Ernesto Escobedo.

And while the young Mexican/American qualifier was already making waves on the tour, close to breaking the top 100, Escobedo made a nervous start, while a confident Evans made a quick break and almost got a second. After letting that chance slip, the Briton faced his own break points, and a double fault brought up another: the American converted, 3-3. Another wayward service game from Evans at 5-6 gave away the key break and the set.

The second set began in similar style to the first, a quick break for Evans. This time he fought off a potential break back and broke for a second time. For good measure, he closed out the set, 6-0, in just 20 minutes. However, the American showed great focus and maturity. He has a big-hitting game, and his forehand punched through Evans to give him the first advantage in the third, 3-0, and an edgy Evans could not get the break back, 6-3.

For Escobedo, this was his first Masters win, his first over a top-50 player, and announced his intention of challenging for the first #NextGen ATP Finals in Milan at the end of the year. He is currently seventh on the list.

One of his rivals, No95 Jared Donaldson, also American, also age 20, also a qualifier, did his own chances no harm at all soon after.

He played No45-ranked Briton Kyle Edmund, who has also had to face some tough draws this season. In Brisbane, he gave Stan Wawrinka a real scare before losing 7-6, 4-6, 4-6, having, incidentally, beaten Escobedo in two tie-breaks in the first round.

In Delray Beach, he lost to No4 Milos Raonic, also having taken the first set, in the quarter-finals, and in Acapulco he came up against eventual champion Sam Querrey, once again going to three sets. In Indian Wells, he drew Djokovic in the second round, and pressed the defending champion to a second-set tie-break, but in Miami, he failed to make another schedule appointment with Raonic, despite looking the dominant player for most of the first two sets.

Edmund sailed to the opener, 6-2, with his serve and forehand scoring winner after winner. He did not drop a single point on his first serve, 13/13, nor face a break point.

In the second, the two men exchanged breaks, but Edmund’s serving level had dropped to just 44 percent. Even so, he was offered three match points at 5-4, only to see Donaldson save them all, and come the tie-break, the American levelled, 7-6(4).

With almost two and a half hours on the clock, Donaldson rode his momentum with two breaks to seal the win, 6-2, and will next face No28 seed Mischa Zverev.

Donaldson had come unstuck just last week against the third Brit in the men’s draw, No94-ranked Aljaz Bedene, who went on to win the big Irving Challenger. Three of Bedene’s five matches went to three sets, and after flying straight to Miami, he notched up two more wins—seven in seven days. By the time he faced the big German Jan-Lennard Struff, then, he looked exhausted, and sure enough, at 7-5, 4-0, he retired.

With world No1 Andy Murray not playing in Miami due to an elbow injury, that leaves no British men in the singles draw. And thus far, things have turned out little better for the British women.

Both contenders in qualifying lost ahead of the main draw, and Heather Watson, who reached the fourth round in Miami last year, lost her opener against qualifier Patricia Maria Tig, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

So Watson’s struggle to regain her form continues. She has won only one match at each of her three previous tournaments this year, and had the misfortune to meet fellow Briton and No11 seed Johanna Konta in the second round in Indian Wells.

Her consequent slip in the rankings outside the top 100 came too late to push her into qualifying for Miami, but she is now looking at a drop to around 120, behind Naomi Broady, as the tour heads to clay.

And that leaves Konta to carry British hopes. Her form earlier in the year was good: the semis in Shenzhen, title in Sydney and quarters in Australia. But after an intense couple of months, she withdrew from Dubai with a foot injury and, having beaten Watson in Indian Wells, lost in the third round.

Konta reached the quarters in her Miami debut last year, losing to eventual champion Azarenka. This year, she will hope that the Briton-vs-qualifier story does not continue in the same vein.

She opens against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, ranked 120, who put out Alize Cornet, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, after well over two and a half hours. It was the Belarusian’s 23rd birthday.