Zheng Qinwen continues with her resurgence at the Miami Open as today the No. No. 9 seed beat inspired American Ashlyn Krueger 6-2 7-6 (3) to reach the quarterfinal.
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Since the world No. 40 upset Elena Rybakina and also very routinely beat Leylah Fernandez in her past two matches, the Chinese tennis star knew that a tricky matchup was ahead of her.
But Zheng - who finally picked up some momentum by making the Indian Wells quarterfinal and winning her first three Miami matches in straight sets - went on a big seven-game run to open a 6-2 3-0 lead against Krueger. While the unseeded American worked her way back into the second set and even forced a tie-break, the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medalist didn't panic and she completed the job by winning three consecutive points from 3-3 in the tie-break.
The 22-year-old's serve was again great as she fired five aces and won 81 percent of points behind her first serve.
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Zheng set to meetAryna Sabalenkain her next Miami match
For a place in the Miami semifinal, the Chinese tennis star will battle against top-seeded Sabalenka, who beat Danielle Collins 6-4 6-4. Heading into the match, the Belarusian leads their head-to-head 5-0 and four of those five wins came in two sets.
Zheng, who was dominated by Sabalenka in her lone Grand Slam final at the 2024 Australian Open, openly admitted on a couple of occasions last year that she badly wanted to figure out how to beat the current world No. 1.
It remains to be seen if Miami will be a lucky place for Zheng and if will mark her first win over Sabalenka.
