French Open champ Muguruza advances
KEY BISCAYNE — Christina McHale, who honed her game in Boca Raton at the former USTA training center, served for the match twice and held one match point in the second-set tiebreaker before an emotional Garbine Muguruza survived a twoday rain-delayed marathon, 0-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the Miami Open Friday afternoon.
The players struggled in the windy conditions, combining for 12 breaks of serve, 12 double-faults and a combined 95 unforced errors, 57 committed by the erratic sixth-seeded Spaniard.
Since stunning Serena Williams to win the French Open last June, Muguruza’s best results have been quarterfinal berths in the Australian Open and recently Indian Wells.
“It was a very tough day with this wind,’’ said Muguruza, 23.
“I win with my heart and my spirit. No matter what happened I was going to give my best fight. Every win is important, especially today when it’s not beautiful. Sometimes you have to suffer and those wins mean more.’’
Third-seeded and fifthranked Simona Halep was spraying ground strokes and bouncing her racket off the purple Stadium court but after an hour rain delay used her experience to down 19-year-old Naomi Osaka, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
The players combined for 66 unforced errors under blustery conditions.
The 49th-ranked Osaka, who plays for Japan but has lived in Fort Lauderdale since she was 8, frittered away several game points at 3-5 before the Romanian converted the second match point on a blistering backhand return of a soft second serve to advance to the third round.
There will be no Sunshine Sweep for Russian Elena Vesnina, 30, who after notching the most prestigious title of her career at Indian Wells last Saturday, completed a rain-postponed match on Court 7 where she was sent packing 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 by 594th-ranked Ajila Tomljanovic, a 24-year-old Croatian.
Rafael Nadal's first fist pump Friday followed his second point in the Miami Open, when he kissed a forehand off the sideline to win a long rally.
He accompanied the celebratory gesture with a skip in his step and then hit the accelerator, holding every service game to beat Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-4.
Thus began Nadal's latest bid to win Key Biscayne.
“A lot of big motivation,” he said.
He's playing the tournament for the 13th time and has never won it, although he was the runner-up in 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2014. At 0-for-12, it's Nadal's longest drought at any event, and perhaps the most glaring gap in the 14-time Grand Slam champion's resume.
Does it bug him? He won't admit to any frustration but lets slip that he still remembers the exact score when he was two points from the title in the third set versus Novak Djokovic. That was six years ago. “Against Novak — 6-5, 15-30,” Nadal said. “It didn't happen.”
The Spaniard has always enjoyed the atmosphere in Miami, where Latin fans give him enthusiastic support, and he likes the tournament's hard courts. He's simply overdue.
“I'm trying my best every year,” Nadal told the stadium crowd after dispatching Sela. “I've been very close four times. I will try to give myself another chance.”