At least five Australians will feature in the Miami Open main draw as the second half of the Sunshine Swing begins on Thursday AEST.
Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, James Duckworth, Ajla Tomljanovic and Emerson Jones are set to fly the Australian flag with another eight of their compartiots hoping to join them via qualifying.
After two consecutive fourth-round appearances in the Florida capital, this year’s tournament presents another strong opportunity for De Minaur to overcome the round-of-16 hurdle.
> READ: De Minaur advances to Indian Wells third round
The world No.6 will face either Stefanos Tsitsipas or a qualifier following his first-round bye. Despite De Minaur’s 1-11 record against the former world No.3, the Australian's sole win came the only time he held a higher ranking than Tsitsipas. Furthermore, the Greek has lost five of his past seven ATP Masters 1000 matches.
Other seeds in De Minaur’s section include No.10 seed Alexander Bublik and No.28 seed Arthur Fils, against whom he has winning records. If De Minaur reaches the quarterfinals he could square off against Lorenzo Musetti for a top-five ranking and would would become the first Australian men’s quarterfinalist in Miami since Nick Kyrgios in 2017.
Popyrin and Duckworth will face Grand Slam stalwarts in their opening matches against Marin Cilic and Roberto Bautista Agut, respectively.
Tomljanovic is currently Australia’s top-ranked women’s player in the main draw following Maya Joint’s withdrawal due to a lower back injury. The 31-year-old has been solid on North American hard courts in the past four weeks, winning four of her six matches, including victories over top-30 players Iva Jovic and Wang Xinyu.
> MORE: Tomljanovic upstages Jovic in Austin
Tomljanovic – who reached the fourth round in Miami 13 years ago – begins her campaign against Switzerland’s Simona Waltert.
Meanwhile, Emerson Jones will make her WTA 1000 debut after she received a wildcard. The teenager will face a qualifier in her first match.
Following a breakout tournament at Indian Wells in the past fortnight, Talia Gibson is among the qualifying contingent hoping to strengthen Australia's main-draw numbers.
Gibson is one of three Australians to reach the final round of qualifying after defeating Georgian Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-3 6-2 on Tuesday. Kimberly Birrell and Chris O’Connell also recorded straight-set victories to keep their main-draw hopes alive.
On the heels of his fourth-round appearance at Indian Wells, Hijikata denied Sweeny in an all-Aussie affair 6-3 6-2. He will face another fellow Aussie, Adam Walton, in the second round after Walton's straight-sets win over Luxembourg's Chris Rodesch. Aleksandar Vukic was yet to contest his opening qualifying match on Tuesday.
Tristan Schoolkate, Priscilla Hon, Alex Bolt, Storm Hunter and Maddison Inglis had their main-draw bids cut short in first-round qualifying losses.
> READ: Birrell, Jones shine in Austin
MIAMI ATP/WTA 1000
Aussies in men’s singles: Alex de Minaur (6), Alexei Popyrin (47), James Duckworth (80)
Aussies in men’s singles qualifying: Adam Walton (85), Aleksandar Vukic (93), Rinky Hijikata (98), Chris O’Connell (130)
Aussies in women’s singles: Ajla Tomljanovic (81), Emerson Jones (147)
Aussies in women’s singles qualifying: Talia Gibson (68), Kimberly Birrell (70)
Aussies in men’s doubles: To be announced
Aussies in women’s doubles: To be announced
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