No one has a favorite goal to give in the Miami WTA 1,000, together with the women’s Miami Open and showed again on Monday, where the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Kazakh Elena Rybakina sealed their passage to the quarterfinals on a day overshadowed by a serious injury to Bianca Andreescu.
Sabalenka, the title favorite after losing to Iga Swiatek, confirmed her position as the favorite again with a resounding victory against an important rival like the Czech Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-2. The triumph is based on service, having won up to 88% of the points with her first serve and using three of the four break points that Krejcikova granted her to extend her balance in 2023 to 20-2. Sabalenka will face Romanian in the quarterfinals Sorana Cirstea, who won the Czech forum Vondrousova 7-6 (3) and 6-4.
Kazakh also in the series to the quarterfinals Elena Rybakina, who added her eleventh consecutive victory on the WTA circuit, defeated Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 6-3. Rybakina was unstoppable with her serve with 10 straight aces and won 80% of the points with her first serve to win over Elise Mertens, who tried to defend herself as much as she could, but was burdened by three breaks made by the Kazakh. Rybakina will meet Italy’s Martina Trevisan in the quarterfinals, who defeated Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-3.
The American will also be in the quarterfinals Jessica Pegula, third seed, who ended her career with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Magda Linetta and will now seek a place in the semifinals against Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, who beat China’s Qinwen Zheng 6-4, 7-6.
The negative note of the day was the withdrawal due to injury of Canadian Bianca Andreescu after she sprained her ankle in her match against Ekaterina Alexandrova. and will fall to the ground between visible gestures of pain after losing the first 6-7 (0) and when winning 2-0 in the second. Alexandrova will face Czech Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals, who stopped Russian Varvara Gracheva in the tournament after winning 7-5, 7-6 (5).
