Novak Djokovic was a ‘victim’ of the chaos of scheduling and programming at the Miami tournament. The Serb saw his quarter-final match against Sebastian Korda, scheduled for the last match on the centre court, postponed to Thursday
In addition to the rain delays on Tuesday, which forced Zverev and Fils’ match to be postponed by a day, the scheduling of the next day’s play meant that many matches, which on paper could have been resolved more quickly, went on for more than two hours, some almost three.
In this way, the last match of Wednesday’s session was the one that pitted Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu in the women’s draw. The match between Djokovic and Korda had to be postponed due to ATP time regulations.
Thus, the tournament issued a statement saying that “in accordance with ATP rules, which do not allow a match to start after 11pm, the match between Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda has been postponed to Thursday and will be the third match of the day”.
Fils defeats Zverev in three sets
Frenchman Arthur Fils knocked out German Alexander Zverev, number 2 in the ATP ranking, in their last 16 clash, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in more than two hours of play.
The German tennis player won the first set by taking advantage of the only break opportunity he had in the whole set, but the Frenchman tied the match in the second, also with a solitary break.
In the deciding set, Fils broke Zverev’s serve twice, but the German could only recover one of those breaks. The Frenchman finished with 25 winners, while his opponent managed just 14. Zverev, meanwhile, committed 26 unforced errors, while Fils committed 35. In the quarter-finals, the Frenchman will face Czech Mensik, ranked 54th in the world, who overcame compatriot Tomas Machac.
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