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It is the first time at a Masters 1000 with a 96 draw that Félix Auger-Aliassime has not been seeded with a first-round bye since … the 2019 Miami Open.
That one worked out well. The 18-year-old qualified. And then he beat Ruud, Fucsovics, Hurkacz, Basilashvili (then a top-20 player) and Coric before going down in two tiebreaks to John Isner.
The draw favoured him, against qualifier Adam Walton. He still had to save set points in the first set to prevail.
The draw also favoured Kei Nishikori, whose injury woes the last few years have left him perennially in either injury or comeback mode.
Nishikori’s first match since Atlanta last July was against Austria’s Sebastian Ofner. But he was just too rusty, understandably.
(Miami is on EDT)
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Miami Open
Location: Miami, Fla.
Category: ATP Tour 1000
Surface: Outdoor Hard
Dates: March 20 – 31, 2024
Prize money: $10,659,033
Draws: S96 / D32
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Final results
Singles, first round
(Second-round opponents in brackets)
Félix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) vs. [Q] Adam Walton (AUS) 75 64 ([4] Alexander Zverev)
Alejandro Tabilo (CHI) def. [Q] Brandon Nakashima (USA) 64 36 63 ([11] Grigor Dimitrov)
Daniel Altmaier (GER) def. [Q] Harold Mayot (FRA) 62 75 ([24] Jan-Lennard Struff)
[Q] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) def. [Q] Emilio Nava (USA) 63 76 (4) ([28] Sebastian Korda)
Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP) def Aleksandar Vukic (AUS) 76 (2) 63 ([1] Carlos Alcaraz)
Laslo Djere (SRB) def [Q] Coleman Wong (HKG) 75 76 (3) ([15] Karen Khachanov)
Dan Evans (GBR) def Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) 16 63 64 ([31] Christopher Eubanks)
Yannick Hanfmann (GER) def Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) 64 46 64 ([19] Adrian Mannarino)
[PR] Soonwoo Kwon (KOR) def. Alexandre Muller (FRA) 76 (3) 63 ([9] Alex de Minaur)
[WC] Martin Landaluce (ESP) def Jaume Munar (ESP) 63 16 75 ([16] Ben Shelton)
Fabian Marozsan (HUN) def [Q] Aleksandar Kovacevic (USA) 63 62 ([6] Holger Rune)
Gaël Monfils (FRA) def. Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 76 (5) 64 ([33] Jordan Thompson)
Sebastian Ofner (AUT) def [WC] Kei Nishikori (JPN) 63 64 ([20] Francisco Cerundolo)
Alexei Popyrin (AUS) def. Facundo Diaz Acosta (ARG) 62 62 ([26] Jiri Lechecka)
Roman Safiullin (RUS) def. [Q] Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 62 64 ([23] Loranzo Musetti)
Alexander Shevchenko (KAZ) def. Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) 67 (4) 76 (4) 75 ([8] Hubert Hurkacz)
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