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The first of the three Masters events happened in the USA recently, and the American players didn’t quite show up in the way that many expected them to. The country has some of the best players in the world and generally these players show up at those events, but this time around they weren't able to have as big of an impact. The top four players from the country didn’t make the quarterfinals of the event.
Some of them were expected to possibly challenge for the trophy, so not being able to do that left a sour taste in the mouth of many US fans. The players will hope to change that at the upcoming Miami Open, which is the second of the three Masters events based in the US. So let’s take a look at who those players are.
1. Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff traditionally doesn’t play well at the Indian Wells Masters. It’s hard to explain why because technically she should do really well. It’s the type of court where her speed and quickness should be a major weapon, but somehow she has struggled to figure out how to play well at the event.
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She did pretty okay this time around, winning a few solid matches, but in the fourth round, the American stumbled. She was beaten by Belinda Bencic, who is a fine player in her own right but certainly not a player that Gauff can’t beat.
Now she has to turn things around quickly in Miami, though that court hasn’t been too kind to her either over the years.
2. Taylor Fritz
Probably the most surprising result for American fans was the lackluster showing of Taylor Fritz. Not only is he a native Californian, he’s also a player that has generally played well at this event, even winning it a couple of years ago when he bested Rafael Nadal in the final. He didn’t play poorly necessarily, and he was going strong, but then he ran into Jack Draper, and that is when it ended for him.
In fairness to Fritz, he did better against Draper than some other players did, but it was still not enough. He didn’t manage to win a set, but very few actually did because the British player played well and even won the event. As for Fritz, he’ll now hope to fare much better at the Miami Open, though he has been rather lackluster there as well in the past.
Fritz has fared much better in Indian Wells comparatively, so time will tell whether he will be able to make an impact in Miami.
3. Jessica Pegula
Another player who was expected to do better than she did is Jessica Pegula. She’s been a very stable beacon of consistency on the tennis tour, often cited as a player who rarely bombs out of an event without at least winning a couple of matches.
The same thing happened this time around, as she once again was able to win a couple of matches, but most people thought that she would be able to at least make the quarterfinals. She didn’t, as she was beaten in the fourth round by Elina Svitolina. She did win the opening set but then allowed Svitolina to fight back and basically wrestle control of the match. Now it’s time to undo this rather poor showing in Miami, and she’s capable of that.
Miami has been the place where she has played much better compared to Indian Wells, and it’s also a place with which she’s quite familiar, having lived and spent lots of time there.
4. Tommy Paul
Tommy Paul is another player that was expected to do really well at this event for the sheer fact that he used to play really well here. The American is arguably one of the hardest hitters on tour, putting lots of power into every shot, and that’s the type of player that tends to work well in the slow conditions of Indian Wells.
It didn’t work out quite well for him, though he didn't fare horribly by any means. He also ended his run in the fourth round, failing to make the quarterfinal and will be hoping to do much better next week in Miami, where he has traditionally played some super fine tennis.
Overall, it’s been a decent week for American tennis, but neither of these top names managed to make the quarterfinals, and that’s something that is indeed not good enough based on the players' quality. Miami will give the players a chance to do much better, and there is a decent chance that they will because at least three of them have historically played better in Miami compared to Indian Wells.
