The 2020 Miami Open is going to be a star-studded affair in the tennis world. Now, female tennis stars like Serena Williams, Bianca Andreescu, Coco Gauff, and Naomi Osaka are confirmed to be joining.
The Miami Open is one of the most star-studded WTA events in the first half quarter of the year. At this point, the WTA’s top 74 players will attend, 14 of which are previous Grand Slam winners. World no. 1 Ashleigh Barty will come in as the defending champion of the tournament. She will have a tough road back to a podium finish with the insanely competitive pool this year.
The 2020 Miami Open will be the second Premier Mandatory event on this year’s WTA Tour after the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. The two other Premier Mandatory events will be in Madrid and Beijing in May and October, respectively.
Last year’s Miami Open games
Expectations for the 2020 Miami Open will be high because last year’s event was such a success.
It can be recalled that last year’s event broke several Miami Open attendance records. One of the records broken during the tournament is the all-time singles-session mark. The March 23 (Saturday) session gathered 32,381 people in the city’s Hard Rock Stadium. Overall, the Miami Open had a two-week attendance of 388,734, an almost 20 percent rise from the previous year.
Ashleigh Barty also memorably defeated Czech player Karolina Pliskova in last year’s finals. It was the Miami victory that boosted Barty’s WTA ranking to new heights. She reached the top 10 for the first time, making her the first Australian woman to do so in six years.
Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka take a break after 2020 Australian Open
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams took a break from competing in singles tournaments after participating in the 2020 Australian Open.
Both are coming off disappointing runs in the 2020 Australian Open. Osaka lost her third-round match to 15-year old American prodigy Coco Gauff on a 6-3, 6-4 score. Qiang Wang also defeated Williams 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 on that same round.
The two top 10 players might be resting from singles tournaments for much of the month. But they did not decline to take part in a major team tournament. Osaka and Williams showed up as part of their country’s respective teams in the 2020 Fed Cup.
Williams bowed down during her singles match to Anastasija Sevastova 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(4). It was her first career loss in the tournament. Fortunately, the U.S. team still managed to squeak out a win against Latvia thanks to great performances from other members like Gauff and 2020 Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin.
Osaka also suffered a loss during her own 2020 Fed Cup qualifying run. She broke down against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Serena Williams’s ranking and performance in 2020
Currently ranked no.9, the American played her last match on the 8th of February when she lost to Anastasija Sevastova 7-65 3-6 7-64 in the Rubber 4 in Fed Cup.
This year Serena Williams has a 8-2 win-loss record. Serena clinched 1 title in Auckland.
Naomi Osaka’s ranking and performance in 2020
Currently ranked no.10, Osaka played her last match on the 7th of February when she lost to Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-0 6-3 in the Rubber 1 in Fed Cup.
Naomi Osaka’s most significant result of the current year was reaching the semi-finals in Brisbane.
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka played each other 3 times. The head to head is 2-1 for Osaka.
The last time that they fought against each other, Serena Williams won 6-3 6-4 in the quarter in Toronto (Rogers Cup) in August 2019.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.
Cori Gauff’s ranking and performance in 2020
Currently ranked no.51 (career-high), Cori played her last match on the 26th of January when she lost to Sofia Kenin 6-75 6-3 6-0 in the 4th round of the Australian Open.
Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Cori Gauff |
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