Azarenka, teenagers win first up at Miami Open

Victoria Azarenka beat Dominika Cibulkova in three sets on Wednesday, a match that christened Stadium Court at the Miami Open’s new venue.

The tournament is now staged at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium after being hosted at Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park since the 1980s.

And Azarenka’s 6-2 3-6 6-4 win over Cibulkova kicked off the 2019 edition of the event after rain washed out all of Tuesday’s play.

Joining the Belarusian in the second round was a quartet of teenagers – Dayana Yastremska, Marketa Vondrousova, Amanda Anisimova and Wang Xiyu all won their first-round matches in straight sets.

17yo Wang Xiyu, reigning US Open girls champion, defeats Monica Puig 63 61, to earn her 3rd Top 100 win and 1st MD win outside of China.

4 teen winners today @MiamiOpen, with Andreescu to play in 30 min.:

Anisimova d. Petkovic
Yastremska d. Alexandrova
Vondrousova d. Strycova

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 20, 2019

Incredibly, it was Azarenka’s first victory over former world No.4 Cibulkova since 2012 – a win that also came at the Miami Open.

That was during Azarenka’s career zenith; then the world No.1 and reigning Australian Open champion, her win over Cibulkova took her winning streak to 26 matches.

Azarenka would go on to win a third Miami title in 2016, and reached the semifinals last year, but is currently ranked 46th as she struggles to regain a foothold at the top of the game.

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Cibulkova beat Azarenka in their most recent meeting at Australian Open 2015, and also beat her at Roland Garros in 2012.

“It was really an honour for me to play (the first match at the new stadium),” Azarenka told Tennis Channel.

“(My match at Indian Wells against Serena) definitely showed me that things I’ve been working on in practice, which I’ve been doing well, I couldn’t really transfer that in matches. In that match, I really did that; even though I came up short, it really showed me, OK, you’re doing those steps forward that need to be done. It was a little bit of a boost of confidence.

“I really enjoyed my time (today).”

She will next face 19th seed Caroline Garcia, who won their only previous meeting in the second round at Cincinnati last year.

Continuing her good recent form was Vondrousova, who beat fellow Czech Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-2 to set up a second-round match with Jelena Ostapenko, last year’s Miami finalist.

The 19-year-old Vondrousova arrived in Miami on the back of a quarterfinal run at Indian Wells, during which she upset both Ostapenko world No.2 Simona Halep.

Yastremska, 18, won by an identical scoreline over Ekaterina Alexandrova, while 17-year-old Anisimova beat former world No.9 Andrea Petkovic – a player 14 years her senior – for the loss of seven games.

Wang, a 17-year-old wildcard from China, routed reigning Olympic champion Monica Puig 6-3 6-1.

She next faces seventh seed Kiki Bertens.