By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Victoria Azarenka got her bid for a third Miami Open title off with a bang as she raced past Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain, 6-1, 6-3, to set up a second-round encounter with BNP Paribas Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic.

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Azarenka, who bowed out of Indian Wells in the third round to Maria Sharapova, says she still needs more consistency in her game.

“It was a pretty good first set,” the world No. 36 said. “You know, second set there was a little bit too many mistakes in the beginning. I felt like I lost my momentum, and she led the way a little bit. But I'm glad I could turn it around and play well when I needed to. But I just would like to see a little bit more consistency from my game.”

Azarenka owns a 6-4 lifetime edge against the 20th-seeded Jankovic, which includes victories in five of their last six encounters.

Azarenka has missed out on a lot of tennis while battling injuries over the last year, but nowhere near as much as Nicole Vaidosova. The 25-year-old wild card earned her first tour-level win in five years, 6-1, 7-6(4) over Timea Babos, to set up a compelling clash with third-seeded Simona Halep.

"It's been a long time. I'm excited to get such a good win under my belt," the Czech said, according to WTATennis.com. "There's a lot of girls still around that I used to play with. They've been very nice and supportive, which is cool. It's nice to be back here and I'm really grateful I got a chance to play here."

The former world No. 7 comes in ranked 328 in the world. She recently qualified for Monterrey before falling to Ana Ivanovic in the first round.

Other winners on a busy Wednesday in Miami were Belinda Bencic, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets to set up a second-round match with Casey Dellacqua, Alison Riske, who took down Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 6-4, 6-0 and Heather Watson, who slipped by Evgeniya Rodina, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Click here to catch up on all the live scores from both sides of the draw.