Tiafoe, Berrettini make winning Miami starts; Bergs upsets Rublev
Frances Tiafoe improves to 17-6 on U.S. soil since July.By ATP Staff
After an early exit in Indian Wells, Frances Tiafoe moved back on track Saturday with an opening win at the Miami Open presented by Itau. Playing in his 100th ATP Masters 1000 match, the American earned his 50th win at the prestigious level with a 7-5, 7-6(5) result against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Now 17-6 in the U.S. since July — including his run to his first ATP Masters 1000 final last year in Cincinnati — the No. 4 American in the PIF ATP Rankings will hope more success on home soil can kickstart his 2025 season. While Tiafoe is now 6-0 in his opening matches this year, he has yet to record multiple wins at the same event.
The 27-year-old earned his first Top 40 win since beating Daniil Medvedev at Laver Cup last September by improving to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Davidovich Fokina, avenging a defeat to the Spaniard last month in Acapulco.
“Wins like that are big for me,” said Tiafoe, who saved all four break points he faced after dropping serve in the opening game. “Any win right now is big for me, but especially the way I played. I was super aggressive, so I’m really happy with it.”
With six of the top 13 seeds losing their opening match in Miami, including all four Indian Wells semi-finalists, the 16th-seeded Tiafoe avoided a similar fate on Saturday — though he was not overly concerned by the trend.
“I’m not even worried about the upsets. I’ve been getting upset every week,” he said. “I keep saying it: I’ve been on Tour for a long time, and the depth of the game is at an all-time high. You’ve got old guys who are still hanging on, you’ve got young guys who are playing elite, trying to make their way into the Tour, and then you’ve got the top guys trying to hang on for dear life. The Tour is madness. Guys are good out here.”
Tiafoe will next meet 17th seed Arthur Fils, who led lucky loser Gabriel Diallo 6-4, 2-3 before the Canadian retired with an ankle injury.
Andrey Rublev became the latest upset victim on Saturday night, with Belgium’s Zizou Bergs knocking him out 7-5, 6-4. The 25-year-old Bergs earned his first Top 20 win by beating the No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 third round.
Seeking his Top 50 debut, Bergs is up two places to No. 49 this week in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. The Auckland finalist is the first player outside of the Top 20 to record 15 tour-level singles wins this season (15-7).
Bergs will seek to score another upset against Matteo Berrettini in the third round, after the Italian opened his Miami campaign with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win against Hugo Gaston. In a rematch of the 2024 Kitzbuhel final, the 29th-seeded Berrettini beat lucky loser Gaston with a dominant serving performance. With an 81 per cent (43/53) win rate on first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, the Italian faced just one break point in the victory.