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Miami Masters 2018: Yuki Bhambri moves past Mirza Basic, to face 8th seed Jack Sock next

Miami Masters 2018: Yuki Bhambri moves past Mirza Basic, to face 8th seed Jack Sock next
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By

Anjali Banerjee

Published: 23 March 2018 7:58 AM GMT
India's Yuki Bhambri rides his fine momentum into the Miami Open defeating World No.75 Mirza Basic 7-5 6-3 in an hour and thirty-two minutes to make a consecutive second round at the Masters 1000 after the BNP Paribas Open last week. The 25-year-old, Junior Australian Open champ who is making his third appearance on the ATP Masters tour, displayed some gut wrenching tennis despite an injury niggle in the second set to edge past the Bosnian. It was a debut for Mirza Basic on the Masters 1000 stage while for the Indian it was more like a familiar territory given his supreme run in California last week. The first set was a tight one in which Bhambri had to struggle a bit on serve and unforced errors but the second set was a cakewalk for the India No. 1 who cruised into the Round 2 with finesse. Winning 54% of the total points as against 46% of the Bosnian, Bhambri eased his way ahead. It has not been a very convincing break point conversion rate for the Delhi star in last night's match where he had 13 chances to break Mirza's serve but could convert only 5 of them. Nevertheless just better than the 29% of the opponent wherein he broke Bhambri's serve only twice despite having 7 opportunities to do so. The Bosnian double-faulted four times while Bhambri did only twice and proved his mettle raining down two aces in the duration of the entire match. The 71% of the second serve points won just shows that the Indian has all the weapons needed to bulldoze on the illustrious stage. The 68% first serves as compared to Basic's 57% helped Bhambri clinch win over the Bosnian. Image result for yuki bhambri 26-year-old Mirza Basic had earlier beaten Yuki Bhambri in 2016 at the ATP 250 Sofia Open. They now are locked at a 1-1 head to head. The Indian is on a comeback trail since the last season. After a career high of 88 in 2015, Bhambri had to be away from the circuit given he was injured for the most part of 2016. Steadily climbing the rankings, India's top is once again finding the rhythm. Making it to the Main draw of the Australian Open in Melbourne this season and now back to back Main draws at the ATP Masters 1000 events at Indian wells and Miami, Bhambri is shining on the Sunshine Tour. Next up for him is 8th seed Jack Sock. The American had taken the tennis world by storm when last season he made it to the ATP World tour finals and closed the year with a semi-final finish before going down to the eventual champion Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Boasting of two Men's doubles titles this season, Sock will be an opponent to watch out for. He has also had a semi final finish with Ryan Harrison against the Bryan borthers at the Mexican Open. If Bhambri keeps his focus and plays with the same reckless abandon, we can see him replicating the same feat he did at the Indian Wells by making it to the Third Round.
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