No. 22 seed Elina Svitolina has just registered back-to-back very strong wins at the Miami Open after overcoming 15th-seeded Karolina Muchova 6-2 3-6 6-2 in two hours and three minutes of play.
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Two days earlier, the Ukrainian annihilated Belinda Bencic 6-1 6-2 in her Miami opener. Today, she made another strong start against the 2023 French Open finalist - saw her level drop a bit in the second set - but impressively bounced back in the decider.
Now, Svitolina awaits the winner of the match between No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek and Elise Mertens. If she meets Swiatek in the Miami round-of-16, it will be a rematch of the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinal - which the Ukrainian won.
How Svitolina beat Muchova?
The No. 22 seed came out playing aggressively and that resulted in breaks in the third and seventh games for a routine 5-2 lead. Serving for the set, the Ukrainian faced her first break point but remained calm and saved it to close out the opener.
Up by a set, Svitolina also went up by a break in the first game of the second set. But then, she allowed Muchova to instantly get the break back in the second game - and a couple of games later - the Czech got another break for a 5-3 lead before serving out for a decider in the following game.
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Through the opening four games of the third set, the two players were tied to two games apiece. Then, the Ukrainian tennis star put it in another gear and won the following four games to complete a three-set win.
