Miami Open defending champion Serena Williams won her milestone 750th career match in a straight set battle against Zarina Diyas to reach the fourth round. Serena prevailed over the Kazakh player 7-5 6-3.
Diyas, who won just two games in her previous head-to-head match against Williams at Indian Wells, posed a serious challenge in the first set. Serena rallied from 15-40 to break serve in the first game of the opening set but Diyas broke straight back in the next game. Serena broke again in the third game and held her next service games until 5-4. As she was serving for the first set, Diyas broke back to draw level to 5-5, as Williams committed a backhand error followed by a forehand error. Williams got a crucial break in the 11th game before serving out for the first set on her second chance in the next game. Williams hit 10 winners to 19 unforced errors in the first set.
Williams broke serve at the start of the second set as she hit a crosscourt forehand winner. She raced out to a 4-0 lead. At 4-1 Williams made two double faults and hit a forehand into the net to hand one of the two breaks back. Diyas held her serve to love to win her third consecutive game for 4-3. Williams managed to hold her serve for 5-3. Williams went up 15-40 on Diyas’ serve earning two consecutive match points. She converted her first chance to close it out in just an hour and a half setting up a fourth round clash against Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Williams, who won this tournament eight times, has a win-loss record in Miami of 75-7. She has reached the fourth round in Miami for the 15th time in her career. She is currently seventh on the all-time list for match wins in her career. The ranking of WTA All-time match win leaders is led by Martina Navratilova with 1442 wins ahead of Chris Evert (1309 wins) and Steffi Graf (902 wins).
Timea Bacsinszky beat Ana Ivanovic 7-5 6-4 in almost two hours. Bacsinszky went down 0-3 in the first set but she clawed her way back to draw level to 3-3. The Swiss player saved three set points at 4-5 before getting the decisive break of serve in the 11th game to 15. Bacsinszky closed out the first set 7-5.
The Swiss player raced out to 5-1 as Ivanovic made a series of unforced errors. Ivanovic bounced back by winning eight consecutive points and clawed her way back to 4-5. Bacsinszky closed out on her second match point in the next game.
Bacsinszky will face Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round. The Lausanne player won their only head-to-head match in a Fed Cup Play-Off in 2015.
Elina Svitolina fought back from a set down to edge past Caroline Wozniacki 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-1). The first set went on serve until the fifth game when Wozniacki saved the first break points of the match. Then a trade of four consecutive breaks followed. Svitolina got the first break of the match but Wozniacki broke straight back as Svitolina made four unforced errors. Svitolina broke again with a backhand. Wozniacki broke again as Svitolina was serving for the set. Wozniacki held her service game before closing out the first set on her third set point.
Svitolina broke serve in the seventh game of the second set and did not face any break point chances. Wozniacki saved two set points on her serve but Svitolina closed out the set on her third chance with a down-the line forehand after almost two hours.
Both players traded breaks twice in the decider which came down to the tie-break after a long marathon battle. Svitolina got two mini-breaks with two winners to race out to a 6-1 lead and sealed the win on her first chance. Svitolina will face Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round.
