Top 10 players Maria Sakkari of Greece and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia collected straight-sets wins in their opening matches at the Miami Open on Thursday. Their fellow Top 10 seed Zheng Qinwen also advanced due to an injury retirement by Katerina Siniakova.
No.8 seed Sakkari beat Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-2 to reach the Miami third round for the first time since 2021. Sakkari had lost her opening match in Miami in each of the last two years -- granted, those losses were to Beatriz Haddad Maia and Bianca Andreescu, both of whom have reached the Top 10.
By defeating Yuan in 1 hour and 19 minutes, the Greek reclaimed her winning ways in southern Florida. Sakkari's career-best showing in Miami is a semifinal run in 2021.
Yuan was another dangerous opening opponent for Sakkari. The 25-year-old from China has broken through in a big way over the past month: she won her first WTA singles title in Austin, made her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal at Indian Wells, and sits at a career-high ranking of No.37, just outside the Miami seedings.
But Sakkari halted the rising Chinese player's momentum, repeating her straight-sets win over Yuan from the first round of the 2023 Australian Open. On Thursday, Sakkari won 80 percent of her first-service points and converted five of her nine break points.
After briefly dipping out of the Top 10 earlier in the year, Sakkari has posted excellent results in the Sunshine Double thus far. Sakkari finished runner-up at Indian Wells last week, defeating No.3 Coco Gauff in the semifinals before falling to No.1 Iga Swiatek in the final.
Sakkari will face No.28 seed Dayana Yastremska in the third round. It will be the first meeting between Sakkari and 2024 Australian Open semifinalist Yastremska.
No.9 seed Ostapenko had a much more difficult match, but the 2017 Roland Garros champion eventually prevailed 7-6(3), 6-4 over qualifier Laura Siegemund of Germany.
Highlights: Ostapenko def. Siegemund
Ostapenko led 5-3 in the opening set and held five set points in that game, but she could not close it out. Ostapenko then garnered two more set points on Siegemund's serve at 6-5, but the German fended those off as well.
The first set was settled in the tiebreak, where bold hitting off both wings gave Ostapenko another big lead at 6-3. The Latvian at last converted her eighth set point to wrap up the opener after 72 minutes.
Siegemund also fought back from a break down in the second set, but Ostapenko took control in the latter stages of that set, reeling off the last three games of the match.
Ostapenko will now take on No.22 seed Anna Kalinskaya in the third round, which will be another tough test. Kalinskaya has won both of their previous clashes, including in Dubai earlier this year.
In the evening, No.7 seed Zheng of China moved into the third round after the Czech Republic's Siniakova withdrew from their match in the second game of the third set, due to a right thigh injury. The final score was 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 ret.
Highlights: Zheng's best strikes in Miami second-round clash
Siniakova won the tight opening set, but Zheng stormed through the second set to level the match. Siniakova took an off-court medical time-out before the decisive third set, and the Czech could only make it through six more points before retiring.
