MIAMI, FL, USA - Sloane Stephens and Yanina Wickmayer were two points from defeat in their Sony Ericsson Open first round match against Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears before eventually prevailing, 11-9, in a match tie-break. Once again on Monday, they were taken the distance by an American duo and once again they came out on top.
Stephens and Wickmayer, who are playing together for the first time this fortnight and were awarded a wildcard into the draw, were down, 61 31, against No.7 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy and survived three match points against them with Mattek-Sands serving at 5-4, 40-15 in the second set. They overcame another one down 8-7 in the tie-break before rallying to win that set and seizing the first four points of the match tie-break in their 16 76(9) 107 triumph over this month's Indian Wells runners-up. Next up for Stephens and Wickmayer are No.3 seeds Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova.
Monday's other second round match was also tight, with Shahar Peer and Peng Shuai edging Alisa Kleybanova and Yan Zi, 63 46 108. The Israeli-Chinese duo, who took out second-seeded Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik in the first round, were down 7-4 in the match tie-break and after knotting it at 8-8, captured the last two points to secure the victory.
Peer and Peng have paired up in four previous events, a runner-up showing in Tokyo last year being their best result to date. They will play Ana Ivanovic and Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinals.
