Simona Halep survived an almighty scare in a ‘crazy match’ to defeat Oceane Dodin 3-6 6-3 7-5 and struggle through to the third round in Miami.
The Romanian, 26, looked out of sorts in the opening set as she tamely surrendered her serve twice to fall 5-3 behind.
Halep raised her level when the Frenchwoman was serving for the opener but Dodin, who had been cracking winners all set, was not to be denied and saved two break points to seal it 6-3.
The World No.1 battled hard in the second set to win it without ever playing as well as she can. She was broken twice but managed to break Dodin on three occasions to earn a 6-3 scoreline.
Set three was like a heavyweight contest, with both players producing their best tennis of the match and not giving anything easy to their opponent.
Twice Dodin broke to go ahead, and twice Halep hit back straightaway to make the score 4-4. It was breathless stuff and a real treat for the Miami crowd.
It was hard to predict who would win at that stage, but when Halep broke to lead 6-5, it finally felt decisive. And so it proved, as the Romanian profited from two unforced errors from Dodin and then hit a cross-court backhand winner and an ace to hold to love and seal victory.
“It was a crazy match,” Halep said in her on-court interview. “This year I’ve had many tough matches, so I’m used to it. I just wanted to stay focused, not give up and in the end I won. I was fighting till the end and this is the most important thing today.”
Halep continued, “It’s tough to play against an opponent like this because she was hitting really strong and you never know where the ball is coming but I just tried to be strong in the legs to return the ball and make her move more. If she was running a little bit more, she had trouble hitting the ball as hard.”
The World No.1 also talked about the challenge of facing Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-4 7-6(4), in round three. She said, “(I need to be) more aggressive than today, find some angles, push her back and open the court.”
Pliskova gets first win over Makarova
Fifth seed Karolina Pliskova also endured a tough test to come through 7-5 7-5 against Ekaterina Makarova.
The Czech, who celebrated her 26th birthday on Wednesday, had lost all three of her previous meetings with the Russian and she made a poor start this time around as she lost her opening service game.
However, she gained a foothold in the match by breaking back in game four, before the pair traded breaks to make it 3-3.
It stayed with serve for the next five games, although Makarova had to save three break points in game eight to maintain parity.
But that escape was only a temporary reprieve for the Russian, as Pliskova powered her way to a break in game twelve which earned her the first set.
The second set was even more of a rollercoaster affair. Pliskova saved break points in her first two service games but dropped serve in her third. She then wasted two opportunities to break straight back in game six, before levelling the score with a break in game eight.
Pliskova and Makarova then traded breaks for the second time in the match, before a hold from the Czech took her to 6-5 up with a chance to break for the set again.
As she did in the first set, Pliskova stepped up and performed at the crucial moment to convert her first match point on Makarova’s serve. The win earns her a third-round clash with either Sorana Cirstea or Su-Wei Hsieh.
“The match was pretty close in both sets, so that gives me some extra confidence to continue on at the tournament,” Pliskova told wtatennis.com after the match. “This was one of the toughest draws for me in the opening round, and knowing I beat someone I’d never beaten before, I just feel good about how I played. Hopefully, I can play at this level the next couple of matches, but I think the way I played today was really good.”
