The seeds of top half from WTA main draw started their Miami Open campaign on Thursday. It was succesful days for the seeds, as just one of them lost her opening match today. Daria Kasatkina, who plays the miserable season so far, came short against Elise Mertens. Possibly the most interesting match up of the day ended up with the three-setter, won by the Belgian 4-6 6-2 6-2. The tournament's eight seed clinched the opening set, but the Russian could find no response for the good play of Mertens in second and third set. It is the 7th lose out of last 10 matches for the world's top 10 player.
Another favorites had no big trouble today. Elena Rybakina needed to play the whole distance against dangerous and talented Anna Kalinskaya. The Russian surprisingly came back to this match after being 7-5 4-1 down. Rybakina who was leading with a break advantage, lost 5 games in a row, allowing Kalinskaya to force the decider. The recent Indian Wells champion regrouped herself, winning the decisive set 6-3, even despite the serve was on level after 7 games. Rybakina gained decisive break in 8th game and secured her spot in third round.
Beatriz Haddad Maia won the quite unusual match against Tereza Martincova. The Brazilian, confident pre-match favourite, won the opening set in tiebreak. Then, the Czech absolutely dominated second set, bageling her favorized opponent. Same happened in the decider, but in the opposite way. Haddad Maia came back after losing the set to love, and revenged her opponent with doing the same. 7-6(4) 0-6 6-0 is the score - quite a story.
Qinwen Zheng came back to play after injury, which eliminated her from Indian Wells tournament. The Chinese started a bit rusty, losing her opening set against Irina Begu 2-6. Zheng clicked the gear after it, giving away just two games for her opponent and winning it 2-6 6-1 6-1 eventually.
Paula Badosa needed 2:52 hours to overcome Laura Siegemund, but the Spaniard made it through the third round. The German came back from the double-break deficit in opening set, but Badosa retook the control of the set in the tie-break. Same could happen in second set, as Siegemund was leading 3-0 with two breaks in her tally. Badosa regained one break and had three breakpoints to level the score, but the German held the advantage and forced the decider. Here, the entitled Spaniard showed her class, leading from the start and securing third round spot with a win 7-6(2) 3-6 6-2.
