The women’s second round schedule of play on Friday had a couple of incomplete matches carried forward from Thursday, because of rain related cancellations. While rain was present on Friday as well, causing delay in the completion of the matches well past midnight, no matches were postponed.
There were, however, a few upsets that dotted the day’s results:
Elena Vesnina crashes out
Garbine Muguruza and Elena Vesnina, who had had their matches derailed by rain on Thursday, posted contrasting results when play resumed on Friday. The sixth seeded Spaniard trailed the American by a set and break when play was halted initially. The reigning French Open champion found a way to turnaround the match on Friday, first clawing back to win the second set before taking the match to the decider. Muguruza eventually prevailed 0-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 after two hours and 22 minutes of play in entirety, across both days.
Vesnina, on the other hand, was stunned by Australian wild card Ajla Tomljanovic 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 12 minutes. Tomljanovic was bidding to serve for the match at 5-3 in the third set when play was stopped on Thursday. On the following day, Vesnina made a comeback, levelling the score to 5-5. Tomljanoic broke the Indian Wells champion’s serve decisively in the 12th game of the final set to score a huge upset in the tournament.
Top seeds progress
Top-seed Angelique Kerber survived a scare against China’s Ying-Ying Duan in her second round match before winning 7-6(3), 6-2. Duan led the World No 1 5-3 in the first set, but was broken by the German as she was trying to serve for the set. In the second set, Kerber dominated her opponent thoroughly to win in 83 minutes, an hour past midnight. Kerber will play American Shelby Rogers in the third round, after the latter upset 31st seed Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 5-7, 6-0.
Third seed Simona Halep too had a brief loss of concentration against Japan’s Naomi Osaka, before she won the match 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Halep, who played the first match of the day, led 5-3 in the third set before the match was interrupted by rain, with Osaka trying to serving to stay in the match. Once play began again, Halep broke Osaka to clinch the win.
Eleventh seed Venus Williams advanced to the third round without any problems whatsoever against Brazilian wild card Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-3. The American will take on Romanian qualifier Patricia Maria Tig, who upset Indian Wells semi-finalist and 22nd seed Kristina Mladenovic 7-6(4), 6-2.
Eighth seeded Madison Keys won against Viktorija Golubic in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 as did 10th seeded Johanna Konta against Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4.
Samantha Stosur and Barbora Strycova, seeded 14th and 15th respectively also won their second round matches. The Australian defeated fellow countrywoman Ashleigh Barty in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, while the Czech defeated Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).
Summary of upsets
Riza Ozaki and Julia Goerges will play each other in the third round. Osaki upset 16th seed Kiki Bertens in the last match of the day 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, while the German ousted 20th seed Carla Suarez Navarro in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(5).
Taylor Townsend defeated 25th seed Roberta Vinci in the round of 64. The American qualifier won in straight sets over the veteran Italian 6-3, 6-2 and will next play seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Indian Wells finalist defeated Mandy Minella 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-5 in the second round.
Sorana Cirstea defeated 19th seed Anastasija Sevastova 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 in their second round match. The Romanian will play 12th seed Caroline Wozniacki in the third round.
Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena upset 28th seed Irina Camelia-Begu in the second round 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Twenty-fourth seed Timea Babos was upset as well, by Pauline Parmentier 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-0. Caroline Garcia, the 21st seed was also bundled out of the tournament in her opening round by Shuai Peng 6-4, 6-0. The last seeded player in the draw, the 32nd seeded Ekaterina Makarova also had a truncated outing in Miami as she was taken out by Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-2.
Top-seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova enjoy easy win
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova won their doubles opener against the wild card team of Jelena Jankovic and Taylor Townsend in straight sets 6-4, 6-1. The fifth seeds Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan also came through in their first round match in a repeat of their Indian Wells final against Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova. Hingis and Chan won 5-7, 7-5, 10-7.
Daria Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova defeated Christina McHale and Alicja Rosolska in the first round. Jurak and Rodionova won 7-5, 1-6, 10-8. In the last women’s doubles match played on Friday, Anna-Lena Groenfeld and Kveta Peschke defeated Sara Errani and Monica Niculescu 6-4, 6-3.
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