By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday March 21, 2024
Victoria Azarenka edged Peyton Stearns in three, while Elena Rybakina rallied from a set down to defeat Clara Tauson.
Photo Source: Getty
Elena Rybakina and Victoria Azarenka each showed their grit on Thursday night in Miami, rallying to win three-setters to reach the round of 32.
Fourth-seeded Rybakina pushed past Clara Tauson of Denmark, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, while Azarenka handed American Peyton Stearns another heartbreaking loss, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 56 minutes.
Rybakina, last year’s Miami runner-up, set a third-round clash with Taylor Townsend by winning her 18th match of the season (second only to Iga Swiatek on the WTA Tour thus far in 2024). Former World No.33 Tauson, who qualified, was two games from the win at 5-5 in the second set, but couldn’t make her efforts stick.
Rybakina got through the set then broke critically for 3-2 and held serve the rest of the way. The 2022 Wimbledon champ only dropped four points in her final three service games.
Townsend, another qualifier, raced past Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday.
Stearns, who held four match points before falling to Aryna Sabalenka in the third round at Indian Wells, led by a break over Azarenka in the third set, then dropped four consecutive games. From there she won two on the trot and had two game points for 5-4, but couldn’t convert.
Azarenka converted her fifth break point for 5-4 then saved a break point in the next game to close out the win.
Azarenka will face China’s Zheng Qinwen in the third round.
No.8-seeded Maria Sakkari (d. Yuan Yue) and No.9-seeded Jelena Ostapenko (d. Laura Siegemund) also moved through on Thursday in Miami.
Caroline Wozniacki wasn’t so lucky. The 33-year-old Dane squandered a match point and fell to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4. After her quarterfinal run at Indian Wells, Wozniacki seemed a bit low on energy in Miami -- she drops to 6-5 on the season, and 10-8 since her comeback began last summer.