Miami Open: Rybakina through to third round after tough win over Tauson
The Kazakh will play American qualifier Taylor Townsend in the next round
Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the No 4 seed, edged out Danish qualifier Clara Tauson in a tough three-set battle to reach the third round of the Miami Open at the Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night.
The former Wimbledon champion was unable to defend her title in Indian Wells last week due to illness and got off to a slow start against the young Dane, who came out firing to claim the first set 6-3.
Rybakina, who reached the final here last year, dug deep to then claim the next two sets and complete the 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 27 minutes.
With the win, she improves to 18-3 for the season. Rybakina, ranked No 4, will face American qualifier Taylor Townsend next.
Tauson, ranked No 91, won against American Caroline Dolehide (6-3, 3-6, 6-2) in the previous round of the Miami tournament.
Miami WTA 1000, other second-round matches (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8,770,480):
- Xinyu Wang beat Veronika Kudermetova (16): 6-3, 6-2
- Peyton Stearns vs. Victoria Azarenka: friday
- Qinwen Zheng (7) beat Katerina Siniakova: 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 ret.
- Jelena Ostapenko (9) beat Laura Siegemund (Q): 7-6 (3), 6-4
- Dayana Yastremska (28) beat Daria Saville: 7-5, 7-5
- Madison Keys (17) beat Diana Shnaider: 6-2, 6-4
- Yulia Putintseva beat Liudmila Samsonova (13): 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
- Maria Sakkari (8) beat Yue Yuan: 6-2, 6-2
- Anna Kalinskaya (22) beat Xiyu Wang: 6-2, 6-2
- Anhelina Kalinina (32) beat Caroline Wozniacki (WC): 5-7, 7-5, 6-4
- Greet Minnen (LL) beat Lesia Tsurenko: 7-5, 6-1
- Beatriz Haddad Maia (11) beat Diane Parry: 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
- Katie Boulter (24) beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (WC): 7-6 (5), 1-0 ret.
- Taylor Townsend beat Elise Mertens (25): 6-2, 6-2
- Iga Swiatek vs. Camila Giorgi
- Elina Avanesyan vs. Ons Jabeur
- Sloane Stephens vs. Sorana Cirstea
- Naomi Osaka vs. Elina Svitolina
- Anastasia Potapova vs. Danielle Collins
- Lin Zhu vs. Jessica Pegula
- Maria Timofeeva vs. Linda Noskova
- Daria Kasatkina vs. Claire Liu
- Caroline Garcia vs. Viktoriya Tomova
- Leylah Fernandez vs. Emiliana Arango
- Donna Vekic vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
- Coco Gauff vs. Nadia Podoroska
- Paula Badosa vs. Aryna Sabalenka
- Arantxa Rus vs. Marta Kostyuk
- Storm Hunter vs. Emma Navarro
- Jasmine Paolini vs. Katie Volynets
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Shelby Rogers