Net positive: Defending champ Medvedev volleys past Norrie

Masterful at the start and finish on Sunday at the Miami Open presented by Itau, Daniil Medvedev continued his title defence with a disciplined performance against Cameron Norrie. The third seed fought off a first-set push from the Briton and ultimately ran away with a 7-5, 6-1 victory, aided by eight successful trips to the net.

Medvedev has lost just six games in each of his 2024 Miami victories (d. Fucsovics in R2), looking sharp in his bid to win multiple titles at the same tour-level event for the first time. The second-placed man in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin has reached the semi-finals in all three of his previous tournaments this season (Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells) but has yet to add to his 20 titles in the new year.

"I generally think that the serve was not too bad. The first serve was quite good," said Medvedev, who was broken twice in the opening set. "Cameron is someone who returns well, so I felt like I was still there. The positive side is that when he came back in the first set, he had the momentum going, I managed to regroup myself and win it 7-5 without even going to the tie-break.

"In general, even when you lose your serve, when you break the guy six times in two sets it's very positive."

With the result, Medvedev has now won 11 consecutive matches against British opposition — including a perfect 3-0 mark in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Norrie. The 30th seed took the fight to Medvedev after falling behind by two breaks at 3-0, but saw his momentum halted from 5-5 in the opening set.

Mixing in net approaches with his trademark baseline brilliance, Medvedev won eight of the final nine games — including six in a row from 5-5 — to ease into the last 16 after one hour, 21 minutes. He converted on six of his 11 break chances, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to overcome his first-set serving struggles.

"Against Cameron it's not that easy to go to the net," said Medvedev, who won eight of his 12 approaches. "I feel like he gives you a medium ball where you feel like you can do it, and then he likes to pass you, a little bit like I do some times. So I was quite cautious to come to net, but when I had the chance I had to do it. And I feel like I'm improving a lot at the net this year, and it's a part of my game where I want to improve, so I'm pretty happy about it."

His title defence will continue against Dominik Koepfer, who closed the day's play with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 upset of 14th seed Ugo Humbert.

Earlier on Sunday, Casper Ruud saved all seven break points against him to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-4. In addition to seeing him through to the fourth round at the ATP Masters 1000, the victory also earned Ruud his 100th hard-court tour-level win.

Now 100-68 on the surface, the Norwegian is the fifth player born since 1990 to record a century of men's singles wins on both hard and clay courts.

Ruud won just five more points than Davidovich Fokina (68 to 63), according to Infosys ATP Stats, but the Norwegian claimed almost all of the important ones. In addition to his seven break-point saves, he also converted on two of three break points.

Both of those breaks were secured in style. A rocket forehand sealed the first before a defensive masterclass clinched the second, with Ruud working his way back into the point after slicing back a Davidovich Fokina overhead. Throughout the match, his powerful forehand routinely surpassed 100 mph.

Ruud will next meet 22nd seed Nicolas Jarry, after the Chilean beat Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-7(1), 7-5, 6-3 in front of a raucous crowd on Court Butch Buchholz. The Brazilian out-aced Jarry 14-13 but could not create a break point across three hours of play.

Jarry, who saved two match points in a three-hour, 36-minute opener against Jack Draper, is just the third Chilean to reach the Miami last 16 after Fernando Gonzalez and Marcelo Rios.