MIAMI GARDENS: Fourth seed O’Neil Jabir crashed out of the Miami Open on Friday, losing her opening match to Russian qualifier Varvara Gurcheva 6-2, 6-2.
In another surprise, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu, a former US Open winner now ranked 31st, defeated seventh seed Maria Sakari of Greece 5-7 in a tight opening match that lasted three hours, three minutes. , 6-3, 6-4. Midday South Florida sun.
Tunisian Djibouti, who lost in the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open last year, is working her way back from injury and was knocked out in the third round at Indian Wells on her return earlier this month.
Djibouti underwent surgery after a knee injury at the Australian Open, and has since missed the WTA Tour’s Middle East swing.
She looked far from her best against the 22-year-old Grisheva and had two medical visits during the one hour and 11 minute match.
The win was the biggest scalp yet for Grisheva, who reached her first WTA final earlier this month, losing to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in Austin.
“The plan was, of course, like in all matches, to be as stable as possible, to try to make as many points as possible in my work, and of course to wait for comfortable attackers,” Gricheva said after her third career win. was.” Top Ten Rivals.
“I’ve probably caught that wave where I’m stable, where I always have a chance to play my game, to be aggressive, to cause problems for others with the way I play. I just have to try to keep going. That’s how. ,” he added.
Andreescu, the 2019 US Open winner, had beaten Britain’s Emma Raducano in the previous round and after losing the first set to Sacari’s powerful stroke play, the Canadian set in a solid pattern of steady comebacks, aggressive winners. He took control while flirting along. Second set.
She took advantage of some loose play from Sakari but was unable to convert two match points in the end, giving her opponent a glimmer of hope, but when the Greek eventually found the net, she clinched the win.
Andreescu has now claimed three wins over top-ten opponents since returning to the tour last April after a six-month mental health break.
Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 victory over China’s Wang Zhenyu, and compatriot Barbora Krejcikova also won in straight sets against Belarus’ Aleksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 6-2.
