The Miami Open hasn't been kind to some of the top seeds in the draw. On the women's side, sixth-seeded Eugenie Bouchard and second-seeded Maria Sharapova, were knocked out in the second round. While on the men's side, second-seeded Rafael Nadal and seventh-seeded Stan Wawrinka were knocked out in their second match of the tournament in the third round.
Sharapova was looking to make 2015 a memorable one down in Key Biscayne by trying to capture her first ever Miami Open title, but success continues to elude her. Daria Gavrilova said that Sharapova was her idol watching her win Wimbledon, and the fact that she is so huge in Russia. Gavrilova, who stands nearly a foot shorter, than her Russian counterpart, upset Sharapova in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. The Russian number one struggled on her return game and her service game being broken four times. Sharapova said this on Gavrilova, "She runs a lot of balls down. I was committing a lot of errors off those balls, and not really staying patient and just going for too many winners."
Bouchard, the highly-touted yet highly-criticized Canadian suffered a straight sets loss to a qualifier. This loss really raised questions if she's more focused on tennis or partying, but we'll get to that later. Qualifier Tatjana Maria took Bouchard to the woodshed in the first set, but grinded out the second set tiebreaker to win 6-0, 7-6(4). Genie found it diffucult on her serve like Sharapova winning less than half of her service points, double faulting and being broken five times. After this loss, social media blew up. Everything was covered from to people supporting her, people blasting her for being more known for her beauty and off-court appearances, some even blasted her (or her new coach Sam Sumyk) for changing sides. Love her or hate her, Miss Bouchard will always be in the headlining news in the tennis world.
Stan Wawrinka's woes continue this year getting upset by Adrian Mannarino in two tiebreaks. The 2014 Australian Open champion has not figured out a consistent formula since his maiden Grand Slam success. He's either going deep into tournaments, or he is getting knocked out early. The upset was looming large as Carlos Berlocq nearly did the deed taking the first set, but Wawrinka battled back to take that one. Mannarino's lefty forehand was the troubling shot that Stan had to deal with all day. Just when it looked like Wawrinka had taken control of the point with his blistering backhand, Mannarino would come up with the goods matching the pace and hitting a forehand deep forcing Wawrinka to make the error.
Finally, Rafael Nadal has also failed in his quest for a first Miami Masters title this year. His compatriot Fernando Verdasco took him down in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, to advance to the fourth round. Nadal looked like typical Nadal about six or seven years ago on hard courts. He looked uncomfortable and was taking second serves from extremely far back of the court. Nadal has acknowledged that he is still not at full flight with his game by saying, "A month and a half ago I didn’t have the game. My game has improved but … I am still playing with too much nerves for a lot of moments, important moments, still a little anxious on those moments."
He also acknowledged that it's not phycial problems nagging him, "The physical problems are in the past. I am in competition. I’m playing weeks in a row. Is not an excuse,” he said. “It is a different story today. I am feeling more tired than usual, feeling that I don’t have this self-confidence that when I hit the ball I am going to hit the ball where I want to hit the ball, to go for the ball knowing that my position will be the right one. All these are small things that are difficult to explain. One of the tougher things has been fixed, that is the game, in my opinion. Now I need to fix again the nerves, the self-control on court. That’s another issue. I am a little bit on and off too much. That is something that didn’t happen in the past. In the past I have been able to change a lot of situations, negative situations, in my career and I want to do it again. I am confident that I can do it. I don’t know if I am going to do it but I hope I can.”