With Djokovic and Murray out, Stan Wawrinka has golden opportunity

Stan Wawrinka, who is ranked No. 3, is the top seed in Miami with both No. 1 Andy Murray and No. 2 Novak Djokovic withdrawing from the tournament.

The Swiss says it doesn’t really matter what his seed is—he just wants to go deep.

“For me, doesn't change much to be No. 1 seed or No. 4 seed or No. 3rd,” he said. “Same at the end of the day … You need to win matches. I know I can beat anybody, but I need to play well for that. I never played well [at Miami] in the past, so hopefully I can change that this year.

"Until this year I never played really well in Indian Wells, except making [the] quarterfinals, so it really change[d] this year. I'm playing better tennis. I feel, here also, that I'm playing good. I took the confidence from Indian Wells. Maybe I can change that this year.”

The three-time Grand Slam champion won the 2016 U.S. Open, but in the semis of the Australian Open he lost to Roger Federer in five sets. Two weeks ago in Indian Wells he reached the final, but Federer beat him again.

The 31-year-old Wawrinka says that the top guys have been unpredictable this year, but he has to win those big matches if he wants his ranking to keep climbing.

“If you look, Andy and Novak—they [have] been struggling the first three month[s] of the year,” Wawrinka said. “They are a little bit [injured] now, so we going to see what's going to happen. But you have Roger playing so well, Rafa [Nadal] also playing well. Only if you win matches, win tournaments, win big tournaments. That's all I'm focused on.

"I don't expect to improve my ranking by [the] other player not playing well. I expect to improve my ranking if I deserve [it], and if I make the point, make the win.”

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