It’s officially crunch time at the 2015 Miami Open, as quarterfinals action on both the men’s and the women’s side of the bracket thrilled fans Wednesday.
The game’s best women’s player headlined the slate with a historic victory, and Andy Murray clinched a spot in the semifinals with a dominant performance in the third set against Dominic Thiem.
With that in mind, here is a look at all of the scores, bracket information and more from Wednesday at the Miami Open.
Scores and Bracket Information
An updated bracket can be found here, courtesy of the event’s official website. A full schedule for both the men’s and women’s singles can be found here, also courtesy of the event’s official website.
Wednesday’s Marquee Results
As she almost always is when she takes the court with her historically great game, Serena Williams was the headliner again Wednesday when she notched her 700th career victory in a difficult, three-set match against Sabine Lisicki, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3.
The 19-time Grand Slam winner is one of the best in the history of the game, and now she has yet another accomplishment to add to her illustrious resume. She still hasn’t lost a single match in the 2015 calendar year either, although it took her more than two hours to stave off the challenge from Lisicki.
After winning a tiebreaker in the first set, Williams lost her grip on the match in the second and lost 6-1. However, she bounced back in the third set and won it 6-3.
Part of the reason Lisicki was able to stick around for so long was Williams’ struggles with her serve. She only finished with four aces and won 60 percent of her first-service points, which prompted this quote from Williams, per Michelle Kaufman of The Miami Herald:
“I know today wasn’t my best day. I just told myself, 'I’m not serving the way I normally serve and hitting the way I would normally hit it, so at this point, all I can do is just fight and try to give 200 percent instead of 100 percent.'”
Next up for Williams is a semifinal showdown with Simona Halep.
Williams will have to serve better if she hopes to continue her dominant run, especially since Halep easily dispatched Sloane Stephens Wednesday in straight sets. Ultimately, Williams has not lost in 2015 and still found a way to win against Lisicki even when she struggled with her serve.
It makes headlines if Williams is even challenged, and it is simply difficult to envision her losing to anyone in the Miami Open. She knows how to turn it on when it matters most, as she demonstrated against Lisicki in the decisive third set Wednesday, and will look to carry some momentum from that closing push Wednesday into the semifinal.
It is a scary proposition for the rest of the field that Williams is still winning without her best stuff.
Sports Illustrated noted that she enjoyed a reward for her hard-fought victory:
Cake aside, it wasn’t an easy day for Williams, and it wasn’t an easy day for Murray on the men’s side, either.
He lost the first set to Thiem, 3-6, and did not look to have his best tennis for the match. However, he bore down and emerged with a tight 6-4 victory in the second set before flashing the type of tennis in the decisive third set that could help him win a Miami Open championship.
He finished Thiem off in dominant fashion, 6-1.
Murray’s and Williams’ performances provoked a response from Nick Bollettieri, the President & Founder of IMG Academy Bollettieri tennis program:
Unlike Williams, who struggled some with her serve Wednesday, Murray ended up with six aces and won 81 percent of his first-service points. It helped him control the pace of the match in the final two sets and emerge with the hard-fought victory.
While it is impossible to see anyone but Novak Djokovic as a favorite to win in Miami on the men’s side, Murray’s play in the last set in particular was encouraging moving forward. It was the type of performance he will need to unleash if and when he runs into the world’s top-rated player.
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