After winning the Indian Wells tournament and flying to Miami, the Polish WTA ranking leader Iga Świątek maintained her excellent form. In the second round of the Miami Open, she won 6:1, 6:1 against Italy's Camila Giorgi, ranked 108th - and produced a virtually flawless performance.
In the third round, for the third time this season the Polish star will face Czech Republic's Linda Noskova, ranked 31st. In the Australian Open, the Czech was better - but at Indian Wells Świątek ended their duel with a convincing win.
A more difficult second round task was faced by Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, ranked 9th, who played against Aleksander Shevchenko, ranked 58th. Until January this year, Shevchenko represented Russia - but he followed in the footsteps of Elena Rybakina and Alexander Bublik, and changed his national colors from Russian to Kazakh.
It was not an easy win, as Hurkacz needed three sets to triumph. In the first, the Pole managed to break his opponent at 4:4, and then saved the set thanks to his serve. In the second set, the Kazakh served more effectively, and in the tie-break he played some excellent balls - so a third set had to be played. In its course, Hurkacz started to dominate again, managed to break his opponent in the sixth game - and maintained the advantage until the end, winning 6:4, 6:7 (2), 6:3.
In Miami Open's third round, Hurkacz will face the American Sebastian Korda, who defeated the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut in his first game of the tournament - also after a three-set match.
This year's edition of the Miami Open tournament will continue till March 31st.
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Source: IAR, Weszlo.com