Murray must win Miami Masters now with Djokovic ousted
Published:The Sony Open in Miami can certainly be described as a happy hunting ground for Novak Djokovic in recent years, embarking on a run of 14 straight victories which helped secure two tournament trophies.
However, the world number one has failed to make it past the fourth round this year, losing in straight sets to Tommy Haas.
Haas’ victory, within a fortnight of his 35th birthday, makes him the oldest man in the last 30 years to own a victory over a reigning world number one and ensures that he has reached a first quarter final of the tournament at the 13th time of asking.
The result also brings the opinion that Djokovic is potentially on the cusp of a mini crisis, having lost in the semi finals to Juan Martin del Potro in his last competition at Indian Wells.
His number of unforced errors are what is most alarming as he dropped points at big times with Del Potro and then struggled on his forehand from the baseline in the second set in particular with Haas.
This is something that should not be too difficult to put right, but 6/4 may look a more interesting price to some that he fails to add another major this year to his Australian Open success in January.
Although Haas has clearly benefited from the victory, Andy Murray should profit more than anyone else and 4/5 looks a fine price that he goes on to win the Sony Open.
Murray’s chances were already boosted by the decisions of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal to miss the tournament, while the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Del Potro are on the eliminated list with Djokovic.
Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer do remain in the draw, who have been known to cause Murray problems in the past and the Spaniard must now be fancied to go close too, given that it is he, Haas, Gilles Simon and Jurgen Melzer left in the top half of the draw.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
