Well, nobody saw this coming. The #2 seeded Spaniard–and favorite to win the tournament due to Jannik Sinner’s suspension–has been defeated by the 34-year-old Belgian legend David Goffin. As predicted, Alcaraz took the first set (though it was a harder fight than I presume he anticipated, only winning 7-5) and had his eyes set on the trophy. However, what nobody expected was that Goffin would go on to win the next two sets 6-4 6-3 and take home the victory in Miami.
Prior to this Masters 1000 run, Goffin had only made it past the first round of a tournament two times this year: the Mexican Open (lost in the QF to Brandon Nakashima) and Indian Wells (lost in the round of 64 to Alex De Minaur). In fact, only 8 days before his win against the #2 seed Alcaraz, he lost to the 82nd-ranked player in the world Daniel Altmaier.
This win sends Goffin into the round of 32 where he will yet again meet Brandon Nakashima. You can read more about my prediction for their match here. If Goffin can continue to play like he did today, I believe he could go on a run and potentially even win the tournament. That is, however, if the 34-year-old can keep up this level of play that we just saw.
testing comment section 🙂