Qualifier Gracheva upsets Ons Jabeur in Miami

Russian qualifier Varvara Gracheva won easily against Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the No 4 seed, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round of the Miami Open at the Hard Rock Stadium on Friday.

Gracheva, ranked No 54, will face the winner of the match between Chinese Shuai Zhang, the No 26 seed, and Russian wildcard Erika Andreeva next.

Jabeur, who underwent minor surgery on her right knee last month, is still trying to get back to form. She went 1-2 across the sunshine double.

“I’m an athlete and it’s tough to stay out of competition for a long time,” Jabeur said at Indian Wells on March 11. “I was missing to be on the court. You know, I just didn’t want to go behind of the ranking too much. I missed already two 500s and a 1000 and there is two 1000s coming.

“I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go and get prepared,’ even here and Miami, and see what’s gonna happen.”

In the previous round of the Miami tournament, the 22-year-old Russian defeated Belgian Maryna Zanevska (6-1, 7-5).

Miami WTA 1000, other second-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Shelby Rogers vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Shuai Zhang vs. Erika Andreeva
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Belinda Bencic
• Caroline Garcia vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Madison Brengle vs. Donna Vekic
• Petra Kvitova vs. Linda Noskova
• Sofia Kenin vs. Anhelina Kalinina
• Robin Montgomery vs. Madison Keys
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich: friday
• Marie Bouzkova vs. Anna Blinkova: friday
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Veronika Kudermetova (11): 6-4, 6-2
• Maria Sakkari vs. Bianca Andreescu: friday
• Karolina Pliskova (17) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-2, 6-4
• Karolina Muchova (Q) beat Lin Zhu (32): 6-4, 6-2
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (18) beat Taylor Townsend: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
• Elena Rybakina (10) beat Anna Kalinskaya: 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
• Victoria Azarenka (14) beat Camila Giorgi: 6-3, 6-1
• Martina Trevisan (25) beat Nao Hibino (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Magda Linette (20) beat Evgeniya Rodina: 6-3, 6-4
• Claire Liu beat Julia Grabher (LL): 6-4, 6-3
• Coco Gauff (6) beat Rebecca Marino: 6-4, 6-3
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (13) beat Tereza Martincova (Q): 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-0
• Jelena Ostapenko (24) beat Mirjam Bjorklund (Q): 6-3, 6-4
• Anastasia Potapova (27) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-1, 6-3
• Liudmila Samsonova (12) beat Viktorija Golubic (Q): 6-1, 6-1
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Katherine Sebov (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Danielle Collins (30) beat Viktoriya Tomova (LL): 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Petra Martic (29) beat Xiyu Wang: 6-3, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng (23) beat Irina-Camelia Begu: 2-6, 6-1, 6-1
• Elise Mertens beat Daria Kasatkina (8): 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
• Paula Badosa (21) beat Laura Siegemund (Q): 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-2

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