Aryna Sabalenka eased into the fourth round of the Miami Open with victory over Marie Bouzkova.
The Australian Open champion has put her service struggles of the Indian Wells final behind her and did not face a single break point in a 6-1 6-2 win.
Sabalenka needed treatment for a leg problem during her second-round match but showed no signs of discomfort and said on wtatennis.com: “I have a few exercises that I have to do during the match to control this muscle but my team did everything so that I don’t focus on my leg and I focus on my game.”
Had to dig deep for that one 💪 #pojddd @MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/oJWs2OOzDc
— Petra Kvitova (@Petra_Kvitova) March 27, 2023
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The Belarusian will next face another of this season’s in-form players, Barbora Krejcikova, who was a 7-6 (4) 6-3 winner over American Madison Keys.
This will be the third consecutive tournament where Sabalenka and Krejcikova have played each other, with the Czech winning in Dubai before Sabalenka got her revenge in Indian Wells.
Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu is showing encouraging signs of a revival and she followed up her victory over Maria Sakkari by seeing off Sofia Kenin, another player looking to get back to the top of the game, 6-4 6-4.
Petra Kvitova defeated Donna Vekic 6-4 7-6 (3) while Ekaterina Alexandrova knocked out ninth seed Belinda Bencic 7-6 (8) 6-3 and Marketa Vondrousova upset her fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-1 6-2.
