Miami Open had its share of surprises and hard-fought battles yesterday. The shocker, of course, was Grigor Dimitrov taking out top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the Miami Open quarterfinals with a convincing 6-2 6-4 win. 

Dimitrov said of his opponent, "Carlos, I always call him like a firecracker. He's amazing. I love watching him play. Honestly, I love watching him playing, I love practicing against him, competing against him. I mean, I'm 12 years older than him. It's honestly a lot of fun for me to challenge myself. It's a great opportunity for me.”

Photo credit: Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium.  

Alcaraz, in turn, was gracious as ever in defeat. He said, “I think I played good tennis. I mean, I left the court thinking that probably I had to change my game a little bit earlier, but anyway, I feel like I played a good tennis. Not perfect but a good one. But I feel, let's say, I have a lot of frustrations right now, because he made me feel like I'm 13 years old (smiling). You know, it was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don't know what I have to do. I don't know, you know, his weakness. I don't know anything.”

Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina reached her second consecutive Miami Open final, beating Victoria Azarenka  6-4 0-6 7-6(2) explaining: “Last year it was different conditions. I was coming from Indian Wells, with a lot of wins. This year it's much different. I was not expecting honestly to be in the final, because I was not prepared that well for this tournament. But really happy that I managed to battle through all these matches and be in the final again.”

Photo credit: Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium. 

Alexander Zverev won the opening match of the day, while the final match of the day saw the only American left in the tournament, Danielle Collins, make her way into the final with a 6-3 6-2 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova. Collins was all business as she took just 74 minutes to secure her first final since the Australian Open in 2022 and the first 1000 series final of her career.

To check more behind-the-scenes at the Miami Open, including highlights and quotes from top players during their Miami Open press conferences, courtesy of Florida Tennis contributor Adam Ross — visit our Florida Tennis Facebook page. 

Order of Play (Fri. 3/29)

STADIUM start 1:00 pm
WTA - Asia Muhammad (USA) / Alycia Parks (USA) vs [2] Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) / Erin Routliffe (New Zealand)

Not Before 3:00 pm
ATP - [3] Daniil Medvedev vs [2] Jannik Sinner (Italy)

Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP - [11] Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) vs [4] Alexander Zverev (Germany)
WTA - [ALT] Sofia Kenin (USA) / Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) vs [OSE] Sara Errani (Italy) / Jasmine Paolini (Italy)

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Written by Florida Tennis' Editor and Publisher Matt Pressman. Source: Miami Open presented by Itaú. Top photo credit: Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium.