Jo Konta eases past Kirsten Flipkens, Elina Svitolina ends Osaka's run to reach third round
ByReuters
Updated 23/03/2018 at 21:25 GMT
Johanna Konta took another step towards defending her Miami Open title by beating Kirsten Flipkens in just 84 minutes on Friday.
Johanna Konta of Great Britain celebrates match point against Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in their second round match during the Miami Open Presented by Itau at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 23, 2018 in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Image credit: Getty Images
The Briton emerged with a 6-3 6-4 win after a well polished performance to take her place in the third round.
She will now hope to build on that success, given her patchy form this year which has seen her win six and lose six matches so far.
Konta will now face Elise Mertens or American Bernarda Pera – who stunned her at the Australian Open in January.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina ended Naomi Osaka's remarkable recent run with a 6-4 6-2 triumph over the Indian Wells champion.
The 20-year-old Japanese, who followed her Indian Wells title run with a first-round victory over eight-times Miami champion Serena Williams this week, simply had no answer for Svitolina during their 83-minute clash.
Svitolina, who last month claimed the sixth title of her career with her triumph at the Dubai Open, faced little resistance as she won 72 percent of her total service points and was broken once.
With the win, the Ukrainian will face either Australian 26th seed Daria Gavrilova or German Andrea Petkovic in the third round.
Australian 21st seed Ashleigh Barty also reached the third round with a 6-0 7-6(0) win over American wild card Claire Liu.
Among the other key matches to be played in the women's draw on Friday are clashes between eighth-seed Venus Williams and Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva and Danish second seed Caroline Wozniacki's battle with Puerto Rico's Monica Puig.
Scan me
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement