WTA Miami: Shuai Peng Gets First Win After 13 Months, WTA Rising Stars, Gasparyan, Kasatkina and Kovinic Advance - UBITENNIS

WTA Miami: Shuai Peng Gets First Win After 13 Months, WTA Rising Stars, Gasparyan, Kasatkina and Kovinic Advance

The US Open 2014 Semifinalist, injury-plagued Shuai Peng has won her first match since Dubai 2015, beating Alison Van Uytvanck 6-3 7-5. Laura Robson is another player who's trying to make a comeback, but the Brit is waiting for a win at a WTA tournament since Beijing 2013. Robson was once again not successful here, losing to Kirsten Flipkens 6-7(4) 2-6. The WTA Rising Stars, Daria Kasatkina, Margarita Gasparyan and Danka Kovinic also got wins in their first round matches.

By Jakub Bobro
2 Min Read
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Daria Kasatkina played probably the craziest match of the day against the Ukranian Kateryna Bondarenko. After an hour and 33 minutes, Kasatkina came out on top, winning 6-2 1-6 6-2. There were many more crowd-drawing matches, such as the wild card, Nicole Gibbs, confirmed her excellent form by beating Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-2. There were also two complete blowouts. First one, the more extreme, was the Kazakh Zarina Diyas letting Olga Govortsova win only one game, beating her 6-0 6-1. Barbora Strycova is keeping up the great form, defeating Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-2 6-0. Strycova will definitely need to bring her best game into her second round match, where she will have to face the World No.3 Angelique Kerber. However Kerber has been struggling since her grand slam title at the Australian Open. She has since won only one match, and suffered losses to Denisa Allertova and Saisai Zheng. Allertova did not follow up on her good result from Indian Wells here, losing to Danka Kovinic 6-7(5) 4-6. Shuai Zhang, another player that had great success has handled it differently. Zhang has been playing really well, and started off with a win in Miami as well, beating the 16 years old wild card Sofia Zhyuk 6-1 6-2. An unusual match happened- a match between two Brazilians. This almost never happens, as Brazil has only one player in Top 100, Teliana Pereira, but with the young Beatriz Haddad Maia receiving a wild card, they were able to meet in Miami. Pereira was the winner, winning 7-6(2) 6-1.

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