WTA Miami: Zheng Qinwen defeated Townsend and entered the round of 16 after two years

On March 22, local time, the third round of the women's singles competition at the 2025WTA1000 Miami station began. Ninth seed Zheng Qinwen, who made her final appearance on Centre Court, needed just 77 minutes to defeat qualifier Townsend 6-1, 7-6(3) to reach the last 16 of the Women's Singles in Miami for the first time in two years.

Zheng Qinwen

Zheng Qinwen said in a live interview after the match: "I started very well today, but as the match went on, she played better and better, and she had a very strong serve, so it was not easy. In the second set, we couldn't break on our opponent's serve, so it was very difficult. But I'm glad I was able to win the tie-break and finish the battle in two sets. I'm very happy with my serve today, it's important and it's something I've been trying to improve and I want to be more aggressive. Finally, Zheng Qinwen expressed his gratitude to the audience in Chinese.

Zheng will face homegrown players in three straight rounds, with her fourth-round opponent being in-form 20-year-old rising star Kruger, who has beaten two seeded players (No.7 seed Rybakina and No.26 seed Fernandez). Zheng Qinwen and Kruger have only met once in the first round of the Australian Open last year, when China's Jinhua won in three sets. If Zheng can go one step further, he will face the winner between defending champion Collins and world No. 1 Sabalenka in the quarter-finals.

Sabalenka

In Women's Singles, top seed Sabalenka retired due to injury after leading Ruse 6-1 and will face defending champion Corinth, who beat qualifier Masarova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Third seed Gauff defeated 28th seed Sakkari 6-2, 6-4 to make her opponent in the fourth round against Poland's Renette. Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka overcame a 2-4 deficit down in the deciding set to defeat homegrown wildcard Baptiste 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-4 to face sixth seed Paulini in the fourth round, where the Italian received a retirement gift from Abdul-Jabbar when he led 4-3.

In Women's Doubles, Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai beat second seeds Dabrowski/Lutleve 6-4, 7-6(6) to face local pair Collins/Kravitz in the second round. No.7 seeds Zhang Shuai/Mertens defeated Niculescu/Pitter 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the second round against Babos/Stefani. Straits pair Jiang Xinyu/Wu Fangxian eliminated this year's Indian Wells champions Mohammed/Scholes 6-3, 7-5 and will face local pair Kruger/Pegula for a place in the quarter-finals.

(Text, Editor/Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)