Kerber plays into the night to seal second-round place in Miami

25 March 2017 07:23

World number one Angelique Kerber opened her Miami Open campaign with a hard-fought second-round win over Duan Ying-Ying in testing conditions under the lights.

Kerber secured a 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 win over the world number 66 to set up a third-round clash with Shelby Rogers, who ousted the 31st-seeded Daria Kasatkina.

"It is windy and it's really late, actually," Kerber said on court after the win. "I'm very happy about my win. It's always tough to play your first match here, especially with these conditions, it's really late. It's the middle of the night so thank you for staying!

"She's playing really hard and the serve is also very tough, so I was trying to move well and go for it. It was not easy with all the wind and everything, but I'm through and into the next round and that's what matters to me."

Venus Williams held of a spirited challenge from Beatriz Haddad Maia to secure a 6-4 6-3 win and the third-seeded Simona Halep was made to work hard for a 6-4 12-6 6-3 win over Naomi Osaka.

Johanna Konta survived a scare against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach the third round with a 6-2 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 victory.

Madison Keys lost just three games on her way to beating Viktorija Golubic 6-1 6-2 and Lara Arruabarrena beat the number 28 seed Irina-Camelia Begu 3-6 6-4 6-3.

Fellow Romanians Patricia Maria Tig and Sorana Cirstea joined Halep in the third round, while qualifiers Anett Kontaveit and Taylor Townsend also advanced with wins over seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Roberta Vinci respectively.

Garbine Muguruza saved a match point against Christina McHale on her way to a 0-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 win.

There were also wins for Julia Goerges, Risa Ozaki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Shuai Peng, Samantha Stosur, Pauline Parmentier, Ajla Tomljanovic and Barbora Strycova.

Source: PA