While top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka eased her way into the Last 8 past defending champion Danielle Collins on Monday, Coco Gauff’s bid for the Miami Open title ended with a loss to Magda Linette, while Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini, and Zheng Qinwen all safely advanced to the quarter-finals.
It was much tougher to problem-solve, especially because Elina was also putting on some pressure. I needed to adjust, and I’m happy that I picked the right moments at the end to play more aggressively, and, sometimes, I was more patient. Iga Swiatek
Sabalenka ended Collins’ title defense, 6-4 6-4, in just 78 minutes, staying a perfect 7-0 against the American.
“I’m super happy to get this win in straight sets, and happy with the level I played today,” said Sabalenka. “She’s a tough opponent, and we had a lot of tough and tricky matches in the past. So I was very happy to get through this one.”
The 14th seed kept both sets close, pegging Sabalenka back to 3-3 after going down an early break, and then fending off 2 match points on her own serve in the penultimate game.
Nevertheless, the Belarusian never lost control of the contest, slamming 23 winners, including 7 aces, to Collins’ 17.
Even more impressively, Sabalenka committed a meager 12 unforced errors, while Collins was undone by her total of 30 miscues.
“I would say that at the Australian Open I was serving not very good,” said Sabalenka. “So, after the Open, we were working a lot on my serve to get back the shot, to get back on track with the serve.
“I’m super happy with the way I’m serving right now, and I think against Danielle I served really smart. At some moments, I was just going as hard as possible, and I was making those faces, but mostly I think it was pretty smart serving from me. Yeah, I’m happy to see my serve back.”
Sabalenka advances to her 3rd career Miami quarter-final, having previously lost to Ashleigh Barty in 2021 and Sorana Cirstea in 2023.
Zheng Qinwen let a dominant lead slip against Ashlyn Krueger but prevailed to reach the quarter-finals and a meeting with Aryna Sabalenka in Miami on Wednesday
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To advance further, Sabalenka will need to get past China’s Zheng Qinwen, against whom she holds a dominant 5-0 record.
During the 2024 Asian swing, Chinese media took to nicknaming Sabalenka “the mountain that Zheng Qinwen has yet to overcome,” a reference to their head-to-head.
The 9th-seeded Olympic Gold medallist reached her 2nd consecutive WTA 1000 quarter-final, with a 6-2 7-6(3) win over American Ashlyn Krueger in an hour and 29 minutes.
Each of Zheng’s wins so far in Miami this year has followed a near-identical pattern – a one-sided first-set rout, and a more complicated second.
In the 2nd round, she led Lauren Davis 6-1, 3-1 before pulling through, 6-1 7-5, while, in the 3rd round, she held off another American, qualifier Taylor Townsend, 6-1 7-6(3).
The 22-year-old Chinese was similarly imperious against Krueger, the World No 40, for a set-and-a-half, rattling off 7 straight games to lead 6-2, 3-0.
Her serve was almost impenetrable, while a litany of forehand errors from the American were far from her form of previous rounds, but Krueger gained a foothold by breaking Zheng with a pair of clean return winners in the 5th game of the second set, and, from then on, the match was narrowly contested.
The 20-year-old began to carve out her own opportunities, but, at 5-5, she pushed a winner just wide that would have given her a 0-30 lead on Zheng’s serve.
In the ensuing tiebreak, the American’s groundstroke errors returned, with a netted forehand sending Zheng through on her first match point.
Unseeded Magda Linette upset World No 3 Coco Gauff in straight sets at the Miami Open on Monday
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Two former Grand Slam champions lurked in the second quarter of the draw at the Miami Open, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, but both were sent packing on Monday.
Unseeded Magda Linette took down Gauff, the American 3rd seed, 6-4 6-4, the highest-ranked opponent the Pole has defeated on the WTA Tour.
The 33-year-old put together one of her best-ever wins, having broken Gauff, who had 12 double-faults, 4 times, and taking care of her own serve, only getting broken herself, twice.
“Everybody shows her matches, so you, kind of, see when she has a little bit weaker days,” Linette said. “I think it was really important for me to keep pressing Coco’s serve to make sure she feels the pressure.
“I’m glad that I was returning well. I was really brave. Then I was able to back it up with pretty solid service games.”
Since 2009, Linette is the second-oldest player to claim a first WTA 1000 win over a Top 5 opponent, after Hsieh Su-wei six years ago in Dubai, while she is also the third-oldest woman this century to reach the Miami Open quarter-finals for the first time, after Mirjana Lucic (2017) and Hsieh Su-Wei (2019).
Linette reached her 2nd career WTA 1000 quarter-final, with her first coming at Wuhan last year, where she, ironically, eventually lost to Gauff.
“It wasn’t great today,” Gauff admitted afterward. “It hasn’t been the last few weeks. I’m trying to figure that out. Definitely not happy about it. Just one of those days when I felt awful in everything on the court.”
Jasmine Paolini fought back from a set down to beat former World No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Hard Rock Stadium on Monday
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Earlier, Jasmine Paolini, the 6th seed from Italy, produced a defiant comeback win, 3-6 6-4 6-4, over Osaka, the former World No 1 and 4-times Grand Slam champion of Japan.
The win ended Paolini’s 0-for-3 run in WTA Tour round-of-16 matches this year.
The 28-year-old’s unnerving consistency came to the fore in the 2-hour, 25-minute contest in which she saved a remarkable 12 of 15 break points while converting 3 of 5.
“Finally,” Paolini said, laughing, as she claimed a spot in her first quarter-final of 2025. “I’m really happy about it, and it gives me confidence as well. It was a good-quality match. I think her level today was really high.”
Britain’s Emma Raducanu continued her impressive form in Miami, cruising to a 6-1 6-3 in 69 minutes over American Amanda Anisimova, who had eliminated Indian Wells winner Mirra Andreeva on Sunday.
It is the first time Raducanu has won 4 straight WTA Tour main draw matches in a row since her US Open triumph in 2021.
Raducanu advances to meet Jessica Pegula, the World No 4, for a place in the semi-finals, after Pegula was a 6-2 6-3 winner over Marta Kostyuk, the 23rd seed from Ukraine.
World No 2 Iga Swiatek figured her way past Elina Svitolina to reach the Last 4 in Miami
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Alexandra Eala, the 19-year-old from the Philippines who upset Australian Open champion Madison Keys on Sunday, was handed a place in the quarter-finals after her 4th-round opponent, Spain’s 10th-seeded Paula Badosa, pulled out with a lower back injury.
In the Last 8, Eala will face World No 2 Iga Swiatek, who overcame Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, 7-6(5) 6-3, to complete the Miami quarter-final lineup.
The 23-year-old Pole moved a step closer to her first title of the year with the hard-fought win over the No 22 seed, who is a past former World No 3.
Swiatek needed 2 hours and 5 minutes to battle past Svitolina, completing the Day 7 night match just after midnight on Tuesday morning.
The Pole was up a break on 3 separate occasions in the first set, but Svitolina broke back in the very next game every time, and the pair had to settle the opening frame in a tiebreak.
Svitolina battled back from 0-3 down in the breaker, but Swiatek used deep, heavy forehands on the humid night to keep herself from falling behind, earning her first set point at 6-5 with a crosscourt backhand winner, before closing out the one-set lead with one last forehand winner after 62 grueling minutes.
In the second, Swiatek held 3 break points to take a dominant 5-1 lead, but Svitolina swatted those away and was eventually able to pull back on serve at 4-3.
Swiatek, though, broke again in a challenging 5-3 game, powering her way to victory from there, finishing with 34 winners to Svitolina’s 22.
“It was much tougher to problem-solve, especially because Elina was also putting on some pressure,” Swiatek said on court after her win. “I needed to adjust, and I’m happy that I picked the right moments at the end to play more aggressively, and, sometimes, I was more patient.”
Her next opponent, World No 140 Eala, is not to be taken lightly, having been 0-4 against Top 40 players coming into Miami, but scoring a breakthrough win over Latvia’s No 25 seed, Jelena Ostapenko, in the 2nd round, and collecting an even bigger scalp in Keys, the American World No 5, in the 3rd round.
The 19-year-old wild-card, the junior US Open champion in 2022, had never previously won 3 consecutive matches at any tour-level event prior to this tournament, although the walkover from Badosa will not count towards her overall win-loss record.
