The fourth round of the 2022 Miami Open is in the books. Manic Monday Miami style was a much better day of tennis and I feel this is a more positive post than the recent ones 😂. Despite all the upsets, I think we’re left with a pretty exciting quarter-final line-up. Today’s post focuses on the first four matches from the day schedule.
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The opening match on the Grandstand court was the only all seeded match from the top half between the number eight seed, Ons Jabeur and the number nine seed, Danielle Collins. I thought this was a fun match and had a super intensity that has been missing from most that i’ve watched in Miami. The scoreline and length of match were somewhat deceiving to the quality. Collins 6-4 6-3 in 67 minutes.
Collins was so good. Focused, aggressive and quick to stamp her mark on the match. Served brilliantly and gave Jabeur so few looks. Jabeur played two poor service games, one in each set. The serve had looked vulnerable in the last round against Kanepi and unsurprisingly, with one of the most potent returns on tour, Collins capitalised. Otherwise, Jabeur didn’t do a lot wrong.
Collins advances to the quarter-finals where she will play Naomi Osaka. Yes please! Osaka beat Alison Riske in straight sets, 6-3 6-4. Osaka dropped serve for the first time at this tournament. Otherwise, it was another excellent display, particularly the first set. Nothing new really but it did hit me in this match Osaka’s ability to create a winner from pretty much nothing in the rally and from any position in the court. Osaka finished with 40 winners! The victory was all the more impressive that it came against Riske who makes you run and has one of the best attitudes on tour. We love Alison. Bring on the grass. Bring on Osaka-Collins…
Daria Saville‘s magnificent March continued as she won a nailbiter to reach the quarter-finals. Saville saved a match point to defeat the qualifier, Lucia Bronzetti, 5-7 6-4 7-5 in exactly three hours. Saville blew set points in the opener and found herself down 3-5 in the decider. Would you believe it Saville hit an ace down match point and went big on serve on her own match point, finishing with a drive volley!
It looked like Bronzetti would be rewarded for being the more aggressive player in the third set. As we’ve come to expect with Saville throughout her entire career, she showed terrific spirit and her patience matched with her endless variety of spins, slices and heights eventually drew out errors from Bronzetti just in the nick of time. Saville took a few more swipes in the last few games which was encouraging to see having been on the defensive for much of the third set. A nice moment at the net.
The number two seed and newly crowned world number one, Iga Swiatek made it 14 straight wins with a 6-3 6-1 victory over the the number 14 seed, Coco Gauff. The first set was much closer than the scoreline suggested. There was a small window of opportunity for Gauff where she had a shot to take the lead as Swiatek seemed frustrated at missing some break points. That window passed quickly and Swiatek was imperious from there on, simply playing the big points better. Gauff unfortunately faded in the second set and won just eight points.
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Hot shot 🔥
This was amazing from Ons 😂. Shame she didn’t win the point!
H&H 🤗
Aww nice.
Press highlights 📰
A follow-up from yesterday’s abrupt retirement by Victoria Azarenka. Vika released a statement saying that she shouldn’t have gone onto court to play her third round match.
Recommended listening 🎧
A little more insight from Ash Barty on the WTA Insider. Still not over it!
QF Previews 🤔
(22) Belinda Bencic vs. Daria Saville: Haven’t played for nearly seven years! Bencic is flying through the draw. Saville had a match point saving win which always brings confidence. I’m going for Bencic.
(9) Danielle Collins vs. Naomi Osaka: Osaka 2-0 H2H but Collins is a different player since those meetings. I’m surprised that I am kind of leaning towards Collins.
(5) Paula Badosa vs. (16) Jessica Pegula: Ring the bells for a first time meeting. Impressed with Badosa’s consistency who is in back-to-back QFs this month. I had a good feeling about Pegula at the start of the tournament and took her out of my SFs for Vondrousova at the last minute! Going for Peggy.
(2) Iga Swiatek vs. (28) Petra Kvitova: Ding ding ding, another first time meeting! I’d take a gamble on this one and go for Petra. Iga has played a lot of tennis and Petra, while we haven’t necessarily seen it for a while, does tend to get up for the big matches. I’ve thought in the past that Iga has struggled in first time meetings against the big hitters so there may be an adjustment required facing Petra’s ball for the first time.
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