Naomi Osaka of Japan earned a much-needed win in the opening round of the Miami Open on Tuesday, defeating Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in nearly two and a half hours.
It was Osaka’s first victory since winning her second-round match at the Australian Open in January — and a step in the right direction after she called her first-round loss at Indian Wells the worst match of her career.
“I knew that I wasn’t playing too well, but I thought, ‘Let me try to stay on the court as long as possible,’ because I consider Miami my home,” Osaka said in her on-court interview.
“(At Indian Wells) I was just over-hitting a lot, so I tried to use my legs. I was going to run into every corner if I had to, and we were going to have to play for three hours if she was going to beat me.”
Osaka used more than her legs. She out-served Starodubtseva with a 10-0 advantage in aces.
Currently ranked No. 61 in the world, the four-time Grand Slam champion is antsy to go further in a main draw and face higher-ranked foes again.
“I want to play with the big dogs so bad, and I just see everyone playing so well, and I want to do the same,” she told reporters. “But I have to remember it’s a process.”
Her next opponent will be No. 24 seed Liudmila Samsonova, who had a first-round bye.
Sofia Kenin got past 2023 Miami champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5. Kenin absorbed 13 aces by Kvitova and converted 4 of 6 break-point chances. She’ll face fellow American and third seed Coco Gauff, who also had a bye.
Ashlyn Krueger of the U.S. had the quickest win of the day by beating Mexico’s Renata Zarazua 6-3, 6-2 in 70 minutes.
Most of the other matches of the day went three sets. Winners included Americans Taylor Townsend, Hailey Baptiste, Lauren Davis and Alycia Parks, Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania, Linda Fruhvirtova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova, Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova and Switzerland’s Rebeka Masarova.
Advancing in straight sets were Romanian Sorana Cirstea, Italian Lucia Bronzetti and Poland’s Magda Linette.
–Field Level Media
