Roger Federer was dominant again. In Miami, he was darn good, almost every match, crushing with his hard-to-read serve, his spinning backhand, his massive forehand, and he was intelligent at the net. He is 37-year-old now, but he really isn’t aging on court. He is not slow, and he can slip to catch it. He is very sharp, and he locks in.
Federer has won 20 Grand Slams, and he has now won 101 titles. That is huge. In his last three matches n Florida, he easily beat Kevin Anderson, Denis Shapovalov and John Isner. They couldn’t figure him out. Maybe they never will, until Federer retires.
Barty’s biggest title
A few years ago, Ash Barty was out of it, she quit the sport. She decided to move back home in Australia, and she joined the cricket club. She liked it, she likes all sports, but in her head, she knew that she had to recreate it, and then she walked into the tennis court. She just wanted to hit the ball, and run, until she was comfortable again. She decided to comeback in 2016, and it took her a long time to understand that she is really good: fast, strong and a tremendous variety.
On Sunday, Barty won Miami, her biggest title, dispatching Karolina Pliskova 7-6(1) 6-3 in the final. She knocked out three top 10 players: Kiki Bertens, Petra Kvitova, and Pliskova. She wore them down, all of them.
Now Barty is ranked No. 9. She rarely loses early anymore, and for the rest of the year, she will have an opportunity to win a Grand Slam. Can you imagine that? Maybe at Wimbledon or the US Open. Now, she thinks on court and she doesn’t get nervous anymore. The is important, to say the least.