The 2025 Miami Open has seen a shocking departure of the men’s singles Sunshine Double – a not-so-coveted piece of history etched by the quartet of semi-finalists from the Indian Wells tournament. The first one to fall was Jack Draper, fresh from his maiden Masters 1000 victory in Indian Wells and a career-high ranking of world No 7. His defeat came at the hands of Jakub Mensik in a neck-to-neck battle that ended 7-6(2), 7-6(3).
Mensik, a rising star in men’s tennis, displayed a masterclass performance, delivering a whopping 21 aces without a single double fault. The 19-year-old also dominated the tiebreaks, marking his sixth victory against a top-10 player. While Draper would inevitably be disappointed, the high-caliber performance of his opponent left little room for criticism.
However, Draper wasn’t the only player from the Indian Wells semi-finals to face a bitter exit in Miami. Fellow semi-finalist and Indian Wells runner-up, Holger Rune, also found himself ousted from the tournament. The 11th seed Dane was overcome by Reilly Opelka in a second-round thriller, thereby missing out on his opportunity to return to the top-10 ATP rankings.
Adding to the list of upsets were Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev, who had lost to Draper and Rune respectively in the Indian Wells semi-finals. Alcaraz, the 2022 Miami Open champ and the title favorite in 2025, was far from his top form as he suffered a surprising 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 defeat to David Goffin. Meanwhile, Medvedev, the seventh seed and 2023 Miami champion, was taken down in a one-sided encounter with world No 56 Jaume Munar, causing him to slip down to world No 10 in the ATP Live Rankings.
This marks the first time since the inception of the Masters 1000 format in 1990 that all four Indian Wells men’s singles semi-finalists have lost their opening match at the Miami Open. It also happens to be only the second time in Masters 1000 history that the four semi-finalists from the previous Masters event have all faced defeat at the next such event. The last time this happened was during the 2022 Canadian Open and the 2022 Cincinnati Open.
This unprecedented exit of the Indian Wells semi-finalists from the Miami Open has certainly stirred the tennis world, adding an unexpected twist to the 2025 season. As the tournament progresses, it will be interesting to see how these turns of events affect the ATP rankings and the psyche of the players moving forward.