Tiafoe Ends Ferrer's Miami Career

An ATP Tour trivia question in the years to come:

Q: Who beat Spanish tennis legend David Ferrer in his final match at the Miami Open presented by Itau?

A: Frances Tiafoe.

The #NextGenATP American narrowed Ferrer's official tournament to-do list to only two on Monday night, beating the 36-year-old 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Tiafoe moved into the fourth round in South Florida for the second consecutive year and will try to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final against 18^th seed David Goffin, a 6-4, 6-4 winner against two-time ATP Tour titlist Marco Cecchinato of Italy.

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Tiafoe and Ferrer traded breaks and looked like they were headed for a first-set tie-break. Tiafoe was in his chair, waiting for the 6-5 changeover when Ferrer's challenge was successful, making it deuce. Ferrer then broke and won the first set.

The 20th-seeded Tiafoe, however, came out locked in and broke Ferrer for a 3-0 lead. Two more breaks in the final set ended the Spaniard's 17-year tenure in Miami. He reached the final in 2013 (l. to Murray) and the semi-finals in 2005-06.

Ferrer plans to play two clay-court events – the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and the Mutua Madrid Open – before retiring.

Goffin has been playing without much attention all week in Miami. He needed only 69 minutes to get past Cecchinato behind two breaks of serve. The Belgian reached the Miami semi-finals in 2016 before losing to Novak Djokovic.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2Op5N0Y