Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev won three set matches to make the second round of the Miami Open on their tournament debuts.
Zverev, 17, qualified for the main draw and was appearing in the main draw of an ATP 1000 event for the first time in his short ATP career. The German, ranked 29, beat 69th ranked Sam Groth 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-5 and out-aced the Australian 22 aces to 17.
Groth led Zverev in all other serve stats, and return ones, too, and even won more overall points (99-90), but trailed in the most important stat of them all- break points won in the third set. Groth converted none of his three break points while Zverev won 1 of 2.
Zverev will now face 26th seed Lukas Rosol in the next round, a winnable match for the German who excels on slow surfaces and has a big enough serve to hold his own against the Czech.
Coric will face 18th seeded David Goffin. The Croatian 18 year old, ranked 59, beat Andreas Haider-Maurer for the second first round match in a row. Coric beat Maurer in the first round of Indian Wells over a week ago in straight sets, but this match was altogether different affair, Coric winning 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
After the two split sets, Maurer went up 3-0 in the third. Coric fought back though, despite an injury time-out, leveled the match, broke serve and then served for the match at 6-5. He could not do it, though, barely able to move at times.
In the deciding tie-breaker, Coric was the steadier of the two in some tentative, nervy rallies, grabbed an early mini-break and took the tiebreaker 7-3.
Coric has now won a match in his second consecutive ATP Tour event, and if he can recover from his injury by Saturday, he could have a chance in round two against a recently injured Goffin. The Belgian leads the head to head, winning their Basel semi-final last season, but that match went to three sets, and Coric will be more match fit than Goffin who has not played since the Davis Cup and has not won back to back since Chennai in January.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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