Sunday, April 03, 2016

2016 MIAMI: Djokovic and Azarenka Complete Rare Indian Wells-Miami Sweeps


Djokovic     Azarenka
At the 2016 Miami Open Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka won titles this weekend by defeating their respective opponents, Kei Nishikori and Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets. What's surprising here is that both Djokovic and Azarenka also won at Indian Wells two weeks ago, completing what is known as the Indian Wells-Miami double. Azarenka is the third woman to achieve this (after Steffi Graf in 1994 and 1996 and Kim Clijsters in 2005). Of course the primary reason 8-time Miami champion Serena Williams has not completed this task is because she boycotted Indian Wells for over a decade. That being said, Serena did play both tournament this year, and lost to Vika in the Indian Wells final and lost to Sveta in the Round of 16. Azarenka is now 21-1 for 2016 while Serena is 14-3!

The rise of Azarenka back to the top 5 of women's tennis is impressive but what Novak Djokovic is doing is extraordinary. He won his 28th ATP Masters Shield title, which is one more than Rafael Nadal's haul of 27. In fact, Djokovic has reached 11 consecutive Masters Series finals in a row, and compiled a record of 56-2 in that time period. In Miami, Djokovic won his third title in a row and 6th overall (now tied with Andre Agassi), having won in 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He has completed the Indian Wells-Miami double four times!

1 comment:

carter said...

Novak has been playing lights-out tennis consistently for the past year.
Truly a champion. Did he even drop a set in Miami?
Now as clay court season opens, let's see if he can continue to play at this level.

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