The first round of the Miami Open was won by Naomi Osaka of Japan, who beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Osaka is now 7-0 in the first round of matches at the event. It only took her 78 minutes to beat Cocciaretto, who had 6-2 more aces than Osaka and saw her win 17 of 20 first-serve games.
With her win on Wednesday, Osaka will play No. 15 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the second round.
“I was watching (Svitolina) last year and I was admiring all her runs in Wimbledon,” Osaka told me. “It’s gonna be … a really incredible honour to play against her.”
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Osaka is getting back into a groove after taking time off to have a baby. At the start of the year, she lost three of her first four matches. Since then, she’s gone 5-2.
On Wednesday, American Sloane Stephens also had reason to party. On her 31st birthday, she beat German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3. In the win, Stephens turned over 4 of 8 break points.
In 2018, Stephens won a title in Miami. “A very great day at the office,” he said. “I feel like I had the biggest party ever, and you guys all came out.”
Katie Volynets, Shelby Rogers, Danielle Collins, and Claire Liu were the other four Americans who won. Stephens was the fifth. In all-American sets, Volynets beat Sofia Kenin and Collins beat Bernarda Pera. respectively.
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Lina Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic lost to Rogers 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Petra Martic of Croatia lost to Liu 6-4, 6-1. In April 2023, Rogers won the Mutua Madrid Open as the No. 33 seed. It was her first win on the tour level since then.
“I’m not getting any younger, so every match I play now is really special,” Rogers, 31, said. “The rehab is hard, coming back, and all these players are so good — and they’re like, half my age.”
Nadia Podoroska of Argentina beat Ashlyn Krueger of the United States 6-4, 6-2. Not good enough. Krueger missed all three of her chances to make a break.
Storm Hunter from Australia, Donna Vekic from Croatia, Viktoriya Tomova from Bulgaria, Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands, Emiliana Arango from Colombia, Lin Zhu from China, Camila Giorgi from Italy, and Elina Avanesyan and Maria Timofeeva from Russia were also winners on Wednesday.
