Barely a few hours after the WTA tournament had finished at Indian Wells and the draw for the second Premier Mandatory tournament of the year was unveiled. The main draw for the 2018 Miami Open will start on Tuesday and the draw has thrown up some blockbuster first round matches. This post has a few final wrap-ups from Indian Wells and looks ahead to Miami.

Miami Open draw

Like Indian Wells, the 32 seeds all have byes into the second round. Like Indian Wells, it’s impossible to predict how the draw will pan out! I would expect to see less upsets as Miami’s conditions are more “normal”. From memory it’s a pretty slow hard court and conditions are hot and humid. I did a draw on Tennis Draw Challenge and there are so many match-ups where I am on the fence! At my first attempt I have ended up with a Svitolina-Muguruza final again.

Blockbuster R1 – S.Williams vs. Osaka

Without doubt, the first rounder between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka is the pick of the bunch. The pair have never played before which makes this even more fascinating. Will Osaka be able to rebound quickly after Indian Wells? Will she be fazed by playing one of her idols? Will Serena be able to build on an encouraging start to her comeback in Indian Wells? So many questions and I can’t wait to find out the answers. If I had to make a pick i’d probably go for Serena.

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Blockbuster R1 – Azarenka vs. Bellis

This slate of first rounders feels much more enticing in Miami compared to Indian Wells. Victoria Azarenka’s first match of the tournament will be a Wimbledon rematch against CiCi Bellis. In an entertaining first rounder, Azarenka demonstrated her bounce-back ability to win from a set down, 3-6 6-2 6-1. I’m really torn on this one. I have Bellis at the moment but I keep switching. Azarenka handled Bellis’s game well at SW19 and with little match practice.

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Remembering Indian Wells

A selection of the best shots of the week from Indian Wells by the WTA.

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Osaka’s final press conference

Naomi said about how nervous she was in the match. She did well to hide those nerves. I’ve really enjoyed watching her press conferences and it has been fun to catch up with each and every one!

Kasatkina’s final press conference

Dasha talked about dealing with the nerves of playing in Sunday’s final. I liked her general positivity towards the situation.

Osaka’s semi-final press conference

I loved Osaka’s late night press conference after beating Simona Halep. I was cackling at Naomi’s responses when a journalist asked about her sister in the video linked below.

Ana Ivanovic gives birth to baby boy

Congrats, Ana! 🤗🤗🤗

Plan for the week ahead…

I’d hoped to follow up Indian Wells with similar coverage for Miami on the blog. To be honest i’m not feeling it right now! I’m going to be busy on a few days over the next two weeks so there likely won’t be posts every day. We’ll see how it goes…

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