March 25, (THEWILL) – The Miami Open saw two surprise upsets on Friday, as Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari were knocked out of the tournament.
Fourth seed Jabeur lost to Russian qualifier, Varvara Gracheva, in a one-hour 11-minute match, during which Jabeur required two medical visits. Meanwhile, Canadian Bianca Andreescu defeated seventh seed Sakkari in a grueling three-hour, three-minute battle in the South Florida sun.
Jabeur has been working her way back from a knee injury that required surgery after the Australian Open. Her loss to Gracheva was a blow, especially after her recent early exit from the Indian Wells tournament. For Gracheva, this win over a top ten opponent was her biggest scalp yet, and she credited her success to a stable game style that allowed her to be aggressive and cause trouble for her opponents.
Andreescu’s victory over Sakkari marked her third win over a top ten opponent since returning to the tour last April from a mental-health related hiatus. The former US Open winner took control of the match after losing the first set, demonstrating solid returns and aggressive winners.
She was unable to convert on two match-points, but eventually secured the win when Sakkari found the net. Czech players Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Krejcikova also advanced in the tournament with straight sets wins.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
