Andy Murray to face Dusan Lajovic in Miami Open first round, could meet Carlos Alcaraz in third round, Jack Draper out
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Updated 20/03/2023 at 18:07 GMT
The ATP draw for the Miami Open has pitted Andy Murray against world No. 76 Dusan Lajovic. The winner will play 30th seed Maxime Cressy and world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz could await in the third round. Alcaraz will be aiming to complete the Sunshine Double after his victory at Indian Wells over Daniil Medvedev in the final. Jack Draper has withdrawn from Miami due to injury.
Highlights: Draper beats Murray in battle of the Brits at Indian Wells
Andy Murray will play Dusan Lajovic in the first round of the Miami Open and could meet world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the third round.
Two-time former champion Murray is playing the ATP Masters 1000 event for only the second time since 2016.
Murray made the last 32 of Indian Wells last week before losing to fellow Brit Jack Draper, who has withdrawn from the Miami Open due to injury.
This will be the first career meeting between Murray and world No. 76 Lajovic. The winner will play 30th seed Maxime Cressy in the second round and could then face Alcaraz, who ended Daniil Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak to win Indian Wells and return to world No. 1.
All 32 seeds get a first-round bye, so Alcaraz’s first match will be against Facundo Bagnis or a qualifier.
Alcaraz's path to completing the Sunshine Double could include a quarter-final against seventh seed Holger Rune and a semi-final against 10th seed Jannik Sinner for the second tournament in a row.
Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas could open against Richard Gasquet, while third seed Casper Ruud potentially faces Ilya Ivashka and could meet Alexander Zverev in the fourth round.
Medvedev, who is up to world No. 5 after reaching the Indian Wells final, faces either Roberto Carballes Baena or Bernabe Zapata Miralles in the second round.
Alcaraz is the defending champion in Miami and needs to win the title to stay as world No. 1 ahead of Novak Djokovic, who is not playing as he can’t travel to the United States due to being unvaccinated.
Rafael Nadal is also missing the tournament and has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2005 as he continues to recover from injury.
Britain's Kyle Edmund will play Wu Yibing in the first round while Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans have byes.
British No. 3 Draper is out of the tournament due to injury.
Draper beat fellow Brits Murray and Evans at Indian Wells before retiring from his last-16 clash against eventual champion Alcaraz.
Draper has been troubled by injury issues over the last 18 months and said in Indian Wells he is still working on his body.
“I was doing further damage, so there was no point in making it worse,” he told BBC Sport.
“I’m at the start of properly working hard on my fitness training. I’ve done a lot of stuff on court over the years but I’ve never really worked truly on my body.
“The physical nature of this sport is very demanding. You’ve got to have a resilient body to cope with the demands of the tour.
“My tennis is right there. The body aspect is going to take a bit of time and that is just something I’m going to have to accept.”
In the women's draw, British No. 1 Emma Raducanu will face 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the first round.
The women's main draw starts on Tuesday, March 21 and the men's main draw starts on Wednesday, March 22.
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