American Coco Gauff was knocked out of the Miami Open on Saturday after an intense three-set battle with Anastasia Potapova, while BNP Paribas Open champion Elena Rybakina earned a hard-fought comeback win against Spain’s Paula Badosa.
Three-time Miami winner Victoria Azarenka fell to Poland’s Magda Linette, but third-seed Jessica Pegula advanced with a 6-1, 7-6 (7/0) win over fellow American Danielle Collins.
Potapova showed determination, stamina and some powerful baseline hitting as she beat South Florida-based Gauff, the world No. 6, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5, 6-2.
Photo: AFP
The two-hour, 41-minute match in the early afternoon heat ebbed and flowed before Potapova took a firm grip in the third set.
The 27th seeded Russian led 5-2 in the first set, but Gauff fought back to win the tie-break after Potapova went wide with a poor shot on set point.
Gauff looked to have the momentum and served for the match at 5-3 up in the second set, but with nothing to lose, Potapova changed gears and her free-swinging approach paid off with her winning the next four games.
After a 10-minute heat break, Potapova returned looking fresh and confident, but Gauff was struggling to find her rhythm and after Potapova, ranked 26th, broke in the fifth game the outcome never looked in doubt.
The win was Potapova’s third career victory against a top 10 opponent and her first against Gauff after two losses.
“I think I just let it go, and I started to focus on my tennis and going for my shots and not thinking what she is going to do,” Potapova said of her turnaround performance.
Rybakina rallied from a set down to sink Badosa 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. She extended her winning streak to 10 matches as she kept on course to claim the Miami-Indian Wells “Sunshine Double.”
The Kazakh struggled in the first set with Badosa breaking her serve four times and although she got her game together in the second set, she found herself 5-4 down and facing match point.
That proved to the momentum swing in the contest as Rybakina held serve and then broke the Spaniard to see out the set and she was in full charge of the third set.
“It didn’t start well in the first set, but in the end I just found some energy,” Rybakina said.
In doubles, Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching beat the world No. 11 duo of Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6 (11/9) to advance to the round of 16.
They were to play Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia after press time last night.
In the men’s singles, Hubert Hurkacz saved five match points as he fought back to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a three-and-a-half-hour epic, while fourth-seed Daniil Medvedev got his bid under way with an easy win.
Hurkacz was pushed all the way by the Australian lucky loser Kokkinakis before emerging with a 6-7 (10/12), 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (8/6) victory.
The Aussie had shown his mettle by saving six set points as he won the first-set tie-break and Hurkacz, the 2021 Miami champion, saved three match points in the second-set tie break and another two in the final-set breaker.
“It’s tough to explain for me. I was just trying to stay in there and compete, play some good shots,” said Hurkacz, the eighth seed at Hard Rock Stadium.
The three hours, 31 minutes contest was the longest best-of-three ATP match of the year so far.
In contrast, Indian Wells runner-up Medvedev barely broke sweat beating Spanish clay-court specialist Roberto Carballes Baena 6-1, 6-2 in just 62 minutes.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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