World No 2 Iga Swiatek reached the 3rd round of the Miami Open presented by Itaú after surviving a second set dip to beat France’s Caroline Garcia, 6-2 7-5, while Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, and Mirra Andreeva also advanced to the Last 32 in straight sets.
The tactics was, kind of, the same, because our game styles are the same. But, for sure, the way you play changes a bit. Yeah, I mean, the ball bounces lower here, for sure, and the air also is not that dynamic. I feel, like, I have to be ready for a little bit faster game, and be even lower on my legs. Iga Swiatek
Swiatek had beaten Garcia with ease at the same stage at Indian Wells earlier in the month, but, after an easy first set, the No 2 seed faced a little more resistance at the Hard Rock Stadium.
Down 1-3 in the second set, the 23-year-old Pole had to save a set point when serving at 5-4 down, before rallying to win the last 3 games of the match.
Two weeks ago at the same stage of Indian Wells, Swiatek needed just 61 minutes to run away with a 6-2 6-0 win, but this time round, Garcia put up stiffer opposition, prompting the 2nd seed to deliver a clutch home stretch run and improve her head-to-head to 6-1 overall against the Frenchwoman.
The Pole raced out of the blocks, winning the first 10 points before Garcia got on the board, but, after breaking to go up 1-0 in the second set, she suddenly lost 3 straight games with a spate of unforced errors.
Afterwards, Swiatek admitted that this was due to an energy dip.
“My energy level got down really fast,” she said in her on-court interview. “So I tried to wake myself up, keep the intensity from the first set, follow through, and go for it.”
Swiatek, who won Miami in 2022, largely repeated the strategy that had been successful in Indian Wells, despite the slightly different conditions.
“The tactics was, kind of, the same, because our game styles are the same,” she said. “But, for sure, the way you play changes a bit. Yeah, I mean, the ball bounces lower here, for sure, and the air also is not that dynamic. I feel, like, I have to be ready for a little bit faster game, and be even lower on my legs. But that’s going to be the case against every player, not only Caro. But I wouldn’t say there was much difference. The only difference is I let her come back to the game in the second set, a little bit.”
The result makes Swiatek the first player in the history of the WTA 1000 format, since 2009, to win 25 consecutive opening matches at this level, a streak that dates back to Cincinnati 2021, where she lost in the 2nd round to Ons Jabeur after a 1st-round bye.
Swiatek, who lost to Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals at Indian Wells, with the 17-year-old Russian going on to win the title, has yet to win one herself this season.
In the Miami 3rd round, she will face No 27 seed Elise Mertens from Belgium next, who delivered a succession of fine drop-shots to defeat American Peyton Stearns, 6-4 6-1.
Jessica Pegula has a marketing deal with Activision Blizzard for Call of Duty Mobile in which she is taking part in the game’s “Make it Mythic” campaign
Call of Duty Mobile
American 4th seed Jessica Pegula got her 2025 Miami Open campaign off to a flying start with a 6-4 6-4 win over her compatriot Bernarda Pera on Friday.
Pegula was never broken in the all-American showdown.
Off the court, Pegula has entered into a marketing deal with Activision Blizzard for Call of Duty Mobile in which she is taking part in the game’s “Make it Mythic” campaign, which focuses on a version of Sophia, one of the popular operators played in COD Mobile.
It’s a good fit for Pegula, an avid Call of Duty player on PlayStation and mobile, and it is her first deal with a video game.
“I play a lot with my brothers, my friends, my husband for decompression. I started playing way more during COVID – there was a lot of downtime,” Pegula said. “I’m a big fan of the game.”
“I used to travel with my PS4. The PS4 was pretty light and flat, so it packed easily. The PS5 is a little larger, a little round, a little awkward. That got me playing the mobile game.”
Back in the tennis world, Pegula takes on Anna Kalinskaya, the No 32 seed from Russia, who was a 6-1 6-3 winner over Moyuka Uchijima from Japan.
Madison Keys, the 5th seed, was a comfortable winner against Elina Avanesyan on Friday in Miami
© Al Bello/Getty Images
Madison Keys, the No 5 seed and reigning Australian Open champion, posted a 6-3 6-3 win over Elina Avanesyan of Armenia on Friday night to also reach the Miami Open 3rd round.
The American is making her 14th appearance at the tournament, with a run to the 2016 quarter-finals being her career-best showing.
The win marked her 98th WTA 1000-level win, putting her 3rd on the list of American women for most WTA 1000 match wins, behind the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus.
Keys will face Filipino wild-card Alexandra Eala next, who was a 7-6(2) 7-5 winner over Jelena Ostapenko, the No 25 seed from Latvia.
The 19-year-old scored the biggest win of her career to date, upsetting Ostapenko to mark two important new milestones – her first Top 30 win, and the first time she has won consecutive matches at tour level.
Eala had to display real fortitude to come through two rollercoaster sets, as Ostapenko is usually the one navigating wild scoreline swings, but, on Friday, it was her younger opponent who handled the match’s momentum better.
Initially overpowered, Eala managed to come from 0-4 down to steal the opening set. Demonstrating some first-strike ability on the return, while Ostapenko’s radar went awry, the left-hander eased out to a 4-0 lead of her own in the second set.
Ostapenko, who can rarely be counted out, came up with a succession of scintillating winners to reel off 5 games in a row, reaching set point at 5-4, but Eala fended it off, and ended the Latvian’s purple patch with a 3-game run of her own to seal the win.
10th-seeded Paula Badosa got past 18-year-old Victoria Mboko in a 3rd-set tiebreak on Day 4 of the Miami Open
© Rich Storry/Getty Images
Another teenage wild-card, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, came tantalizingly close to upsetting the No 10 seed, Paula Badosa from Spain, but was edged out, 7-5 1-6 7-6(3).
Mboko came into her match with Badosa boasting a 28-1 record in 2025.
The Canadian, a former Top 10 junior, has won 5 ITF titles and cut her ranking from 333 to 162 in less than 3 months, then notched her first tour-level win over Colombia’s Camila Osorio in the 1st round.
Badosa, though, was a test at a whole new level, and was pushed all the way in the 2-hour, 19-minute battle.
In the third set, Mboko came from 2-5 down to level at 5-5, her blistering backhand and deft volleys delivering the highlights as she demonstrated her ‘never-say-die attitude’.
The Spaniard had to come up with some of her best tennis, including a pair of remarkable backhand passes, to come through the deciding tiebreak.
Badosa’s next opponent is Clara Tauson, the No 20 seed from Denmark, who advanced to the 3rd round of the Miami Open for the first time with a 6-4 7-5 win over Austria’s Julia Grabher.
17-year-old Mirra Andreeva is making history at every turn after easily beating Veronika Kudermetova, and eyeing the ‘Sunshine Double’
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After her 1st-round bye, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva blitzed her fellow Russian, Veronika Kudermetova, 6-0 6-2, in her first appearance in Miami.
The 11th seed is now ranked 6 in the world after Monday’s updated listing following her Indian Wells title last weekend.
Now she is aiming to become the first teenager in history to complete the Sunshine Double by winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back.
Andreeva leads the tour with match-wins this year, and became the first player to hit 20 main-draw wins at tour level after dismissing former Top 10 player Kudermetova in their first career meeting in only 68 minutes.
Her current winning streak is up to 13 straight matches, all coming at WTA 1000 events, and she already has 2 titles at this level after triumphing in Dubai in February and Indian Wells last week.
Still over a month away from her 18th birthday, Andreeva continues to make history at every turn.
At one point during Friday’s first set, Andreeva won 10 consecutive points and had no trouble reeling off the one-set lead, striking 7 winners to Kudermetova’s 1 in the opening frame.
At 6-0, 2-0, Kudermetova got her first, and only, break points, but Andreeva erased the pair to win her 9th straight game.
A challenge awaits Andreeva in the 3rd round, where she will face the only other player to win a WTA 1000 title so far this year, the No 17 seed, Amanda Anisimova, the Doha champion.
The American, who cruised past Egypt’s Mayar Sherif, 6-2 6-2, in just 62 minutes, has never faced Andreeva before.
Meanwhile, Anna Blinkova upset No 13 seed Diana Shnaider, 6-4 7-6(0), in an all-Russian contest, notching up her 9th career Top 20 win, and first since beating Emma Navarro at Hong Kong 2024.
Blinkova, who leveled her head-to-head with Shnaider at 1-1, will meet Marta Kostyuk, the No 23 seed from Ukraine, who battled her way past Australian qualifier, Kimberly Birrell, 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Another Ukrainian also advanced, Elina Svitolina, the No 22 seed, who cruised past Belinda Bencic from Switzerland, 6-1 6-2, in 72 minutes, in a contest between two of the WTA’s returning mothers.
Svitolina next meets Karolina Muchova, the Czech 15th seed, who benefited from the retirement of Belarusian Victoria Azarenka on Friday evening.
Azarenka was forced to pull out after suffering a freak injury at the beginning of the second set, while trailing Muchova, 6-0.
The three-time former champion cried out in pain and dropped her racket before being treated by the physio on the spot, but she could not continue, and was helped off the court with Muchova carrying her bags for her.
