World No.7 Garbine Muguruza survived a tough battle with young American wildcard Kayla Day, defeating the seventeen year-old 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in just over two hours.
Day is the current US Open Junior champion, and the American had already taken down Australian Open semi-finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round. Few would have given the young American much of a chance, but she confounded most pre-match predictions to race into a 5-1 lead in the first set. Murguruza managed to retrieve one of the breaks from the young let-hander, but Day then served out with surprising confidence at the second attempt.
Murguruza continued to be the player under the most pressure in the second, surviving a tough opening service game to lead in the set. The Spanish seventh seed continued to be under pressure, as Day forced three break points in the early going in the second set. Muruguza managed to save all three before forcing pressure against the Day serve by reaching deuce. She did not force a break point, and Day would hold.
At 5-5 Day won the first point against the Murguruza serve, and would create two more break opportunities in the game, but Murguruza would bravely hold for a final chance to break the Murguruza serve before a tiebreak. She was successful earning two break points at 15-40 and took the second set to force a decider.
The French Open champion then took control of the third set, breaking immediately and dissuading some immediate return pressure from Day, before eventually securing a double break to close out the match in a manner far more comfortable than the first and second sets would have suggested.
Muguruza will face tenth seed Elina Svitolina in the next round, after the Ukrainian won her match with the Australian Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-1.
Other ladies singles results saw wins for Caroline Garcia against Johanna Konta, and for Timea Bacsinszky against Kiki Bertens.
