Sony Ericsson Open 2012: Novak Djokovic Defeats Andy Murray

Novak Djokovic wins again. On Sunday, the top-ranked tennis player in the world defended his title at the Sony Ericsson Open, beating Andy Murray 6-1, 7-6 (5).

Murray is the only player on tour who has beaten Djokovic twice since he became the top-ranked player in the world, but he was never terribly close to upending the World No. 1 on Sunday. Djokovic never lost his serve and only faced one break point all match.

The Sony Ericsson Open concludes on Sunday with two events, though with all due respect to the competitors in what could be a great women’s doubles final, all eyes will be on one of the events. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has advanced to the final, and he’ll take on No. 4 seed Andy Murray for the title at the Miami Masters.

Djokovic has gone through all of his matches in straight sets to get to the final. Andy Murray has been more tested -- he required three sets to get by Janko Tipsarevic -- but he’s also had two of his opponents withdraw. One of those opponents was Rafael Nadal, who withdrew from the semifinal due to an injury.

No. 5 ranked Agnieszka Radwanska captured the biggest win of her career on Saturday, defeating Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-4 to win the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open. It was her ninth WTA title, and her fifth WTA Premier title in the past eight months, but this was by far the most important win of her career. She had long been considered a solid player but was placed on a second-tier, consistently beating the lower-ranked players.

The win solidifies Radwanska’s climb up the rankings, defeating Caroline Wozniacki earlier this year when she was No. 1 in the world and now beating Sharapova, who she had lost to six straight times. Sharapova is now 0-4 in the Sony Ericsson Finals, and Radwanska quickly took care of her in straight sets at Key Biscayne. Sharapova lost serve in the final game of each set and Radwanska took advantage. She outplayed Sharapova all afternoon but it was still an important mental hill to climb. This signature win now puts her in the mix among the top women’s players in the world heading to the next major this summer at Roland Garros.

No. 5 ranked Agnieszka Radwańska has a chance to win the biggest title of her career on Saturday at the Sony Ericsson Open, but she will be the significant underdog against No. 2 Maria Sharapova. Radwańska might be in the slightly better form, however. She has won once on tour so far this year while Sharapova is yet to win a tournament in 2012.

Radwańska found herself drawn in the half of the tournament with No. 1-ranked Victoria Azarenka, who has beaten her three times this year, but Marion Bartoli upset Azarenka to get to the semifinals and save Radwańska -- who beat Bartoli in straight sets -- from having to face the player that has been her main nemesis this season. Sharapova had a much tougher time in her semifinal. She dropped the opening set before coming from behind to defeat Caroline Wozniacki in three sets.

On Friday, the final match was set in the men’s singles tournament were held in Miami at the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open. Rafael Nadal withdrew from his quarterfinal match with Andy Murray due to a knee injury, giving Murray a berth into the final. The other semifinal was bumped to the evening match, as No. 1 men’s player in the world Novak Djokovic took on No. 21 Juan Monaco.

Monaco was a surprising entrant into the semifinals, upsetting Mardy Fish to earn the right to face Djokovic. His underdog story came to an ignominious end, however, as he was defeated in straight sets by Djokovic, 6-0, 7-6 (5).

Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Friday semifinal against Andy Murray due to a knee injury, according to a press release sent out from the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open. Nadal commented on the injury after the news broke, saying that he was simply not ready to compete.

Murray will automatically advance to the finals in Key Biscayne as a result of Nadal’s withdrawal. While that’s good news for the Scot, it unfortunately robs fans of what could have been an epic match between the World’s No. 2 and No. 4 ranked players.

Novak Djokovic isn’t off to the blistering start he enjoyed in 2011, but the world’s top men’s tennis player is still in fine form. He defeated David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open to stay on the road to his 30th career ATP title.

Djokovic earned the victory in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), but he had to work for it after converting just 56 percent of his first serves. However he did win 16 points on Ferrer’s second serve, broke the Spaniard four times, and won 77 points to Ferrer’s 57.

Like most major tennis tournaments of recent vintage, the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open was scarce on Americans in the men’s singles draw. And, also like most major tennis tournaments of recent vintage, the Sony Ericsson Open will be without an American man in the semifinals, thanks to No. 8 Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Argentina’s 21st-seeded Juan Monaco.

Monaco dusted Fish in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, and was especially devastating in the first set. He posted a staggering 96 percent mark on his first serve, winning 73 percent of those points, and won the only second-serve point of the set; it’s no surprise that he broke the American twice.

Maria Sharapova downed former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the women’s singles finals at the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open. It was an entertaining match to say the least, with both players trading turns looking absolutely dominant.

Sharapova was all over the place in the first set. She broke Wozniacki on her first two opportunities to take a 3-0 lead in the set. Then she fell apart, committing 22 unforced errors as Wozniacki went 6-1 the rest of the way to take a one set lead. In the second set, Sharapova again took a 3-0 lead, but this time was able to keep her composure, scoring on 77 percent of her first serves. In the third, Sharapova went up 5-2 but Wozniacki came back to win the next two games. Sharapova secured match point after serving an apparent double fault at 40-30 that was correctly overturned by the umpire.

After three straight matches that lasted three sets, American Venus Williams finally got to play a straight set match.

This one, though, didn’t go in her favor.

Before there was Federer-Nadal, there was Roddick-Federer. Roddick has won only one Grand Slam title, the 2003 U.S. Open, but has reached the final four other times — thrice in Wimbledon 2004, 2005 and 2009, and once in Flushing Meadows in 2006 — losing to Federer each time. There’s not much of a rivalry in terms of wins and losses, but the two have met time and time again in high-pressure situations, enough that every time they face off is filled with drama, even though Federer is the world’s No. 3 player and Roddick is No. 34.

In fact, before Monday night in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open, Roddick had beaten Federer only twice in their long careers. That all changed in Miami as Roddick took this one, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4. Roddick had taken a massive tumble in the rankings with subpar performance as he struggles with losing a few steps with age — he turns 30 in August this year — but he played like a spring chicken in this one, including an ace and a powerful winning serve in the final game to close this one out.

The first round of the women’s singles tournament in the Sony Ericsson Open kicked off Tuesday, while men’s qualifying wrapped up. No seeds were in action, but there were some recognizable names to avid tennis fans, such as China’s Jie Zheng, who advanced, and Jelena Dokic, who was dropped. Here are the rest of the results from Tuesday’s action.

For more final scores and information about the tournament, please visit the official 2012 Sony Ericsson Open website.

The second day of play in the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open got underway on Tuesday in Miami, Fla. Edouard Roger-Vasselin played in his qualifier against James Ward and won out in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

There have been plenty of finals matches for qualifiers in both men’s and women’s singles competition, so please see below for results of which players have now made the cut into the tournament proper.