The battle for this year’s Miami Open is heating up as we’re down to the final eight competitors. Most of the top women’s seeds have already been knocked out, leaving the ones left with a greater chance of winning this particular trophy.
Aryna Sabalenka is the highest seed remaining (No. 2 in the WTA rankings), and she is still in spectacular form here in Miami. The same goes for No. 7, Elena Rybakina, who actually won the Indian Wells Masters not too long ago.
Today at SBOTOP, we will bring the spotlight to Sabalenka and Rybakina, as well as share with you some other Miami Open 2023 updates.
Andreescu suffers agonizing injury
Bianca Andreescu may have to wait even longer to claim her first big trophy since beating Serena Williams to win the 2019 US Open due to circumstances beyond her control.
Andreescu was taken off court in a wheelchair, and she was clearly emotional because it was a sad end to her campaign in South Beach.
She lost the first set, 7-6(0), but it was an up-and-down set that could’ve gone either way. When Ekaterina Alexandrova took control after a two-hour rain delay to lead 5-3, Andreescu replied to make it 5-5.
However, Alexandrova regrouped, and she eventually took the first set without losing a point.
A left ankle injury forced Andreescu to quit against Alexandrova with a 2-0 lead in the second set. The 22-year-old Canadian’s injury happened just as she was rounding into form, which is unfortunate.
“I never felt this kind of pain before,” said Andreescu while she was checked by the medical team.
Andreescu was off to a solid start in this tournament, beating Emma Raducanu in the first round before knocking out Maria Sakkari and Sofia Kenin in the next rounds.
And during the Indian Wells Masters, Andreescu advanced to the third round before losing to No. 1 Iga Swiatek in a tough contest.
Andreescu’s retirement means that Ekaterina Alexandrova is through to the quarter-finals on Wednesday, where she will take on Petra Kvitova.
Kvitova secured her quarter-finals ticket by beating qualifier Varvara Gracheva in a match that lasted for more than two hours.
Sabalenka bidding to be on top of the WTA
Aryna Sabalenka recorded her tour-leading 20th victory of the 2023 season after she beat Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, in the fourth round.
Matches between Sabalenka and Krejcikova have been mostly close, as three of their four previous meetings went the distance. But their clash on Monday was as one-sided as it gets in favour of Sabalenka.
Because of her excellent serve, Sabalenka went unbroken and just faced one break point in the match. It also helped that Krejcikova had her first double-fault to give Sabalenka a 4-2 lead, and the latter claimed the first set with 12 winners to seven unforced errors in three games.
It was more of the same from Sabalenka in the second set, as Krejcikova double-faulted twice on break points to give Sabalenka a double-break edge to secure the victory.
Sabalenka is set to face Sorana Cirstea on Wednesday. Cirstea just booked her back-to-back WTA 100 quarter-finals when she edged Marketa Vondrousova, 7-6(3), 6-4.
The winner of this year’s Australian Open declared a few months ago that she wants to be on top of the WTA rankings, and she can cut Iga Swiatek’s lead to a large degree if she wins it all in Miami.
Rybakina is one step closer to achieve rare feat
Elena Rybakina extended her winning streak to 11 matches by beating Elise Mertens on Monday in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Rybakina now has the second-most match wins on the WTA Tour this year with 19, only one behind Aryna Sabalenka.
This means that the possibility of Rybakina achieving the Sunshine Double is still alive, but she reiterated that she’s not thinking about it too much and that her main focus is to be better than her last performance.
“Physically I’m not the freshest, but I’m happy that I’m managing and finding my way. To be in a quarter-final is great and hopefully I’m going to play better,” said Rybakina.
After a brief lapse in the first set which allowed Mertens to break in the sixth game, Rybakina came back to take the opening set and never looked back from there.
Rybakina will take on Martina Trevisan in the quarter-finals, and the Miami Open 2023 odds say that she might face Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals before a possible meeting with Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
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