Brutal twist for Daria Saville after stunning start at Miami Open
Daria Saville has continued her stunning resurgence on the WTA tour, beating an opponent ranked 168 places above her at the Miami Open.
The Aussie star beat World No.81 Greet Minnen of Belgium 7-5 6-3 in just over two hours on Tuesday at the WTA 1000 event.
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Saville has improved her ranking from 610 to 249 in the world in recent weeks after a number of injury-plagued years.
The 28-year-old is formerly a top-20 player but saw her ranking plummet due to injuries and a run of indifferent form.
Saville forced 13 break points in the opening set, winning just two, but the latter of those secured her the set.
The second was much more straight-forward for the Australian favourite.
In a brutal twist, Saville will now face two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep in the second round.
Saville defeated two seeded players at Indian Wells last week in a remarkable run to the fourth round.
She recorded her first win over a top-10 opponent since 2018 when she took down Ons Jabeur, and followed that up by defeating Elise Mertens in the third round.
However her run came to an end in sad fashion when she retired with a thigh injury while trailing 1-4 to Maria Sakkari.
With Storm Sanders losing in straight sets to Xinyu Wang in qualifying for the Miami Open earlier on Tuesday, there are just two other Australian women in the 128-player draw.
Astra Sharma faces former World No.1 Naomi Osaka, while Ajla Tomljanovic will meet a qualifier.
Medvedev and Sabalenka get top seeding at Miami Open
With World No.1s Novak Djokovic and Ash Barty missing in action, Daniil Medvedev and Aryna Sabalenka are the top seeds in Miami.
Medvedev can reclaim the top ranking with a strong showing after losing it back to Djokovic last week with a surprise defeat in the third round at Indian Wells.
Djokovic moved back into the top spot after Medvedev held it for three weeks, however the Serbian star is barred from playing Indian Wells and Miami due to his vaccination status.
Medvedev, runner-up at the past two Australian Opens, can return to World No.1 if he reached the semi-finals in Miami.
Sabalenka fell to fifth in this week's rankings update and has not reached a WTA final since last May on clay in Madrid.
However she has been handed the top seeding in the absence of World No.1 Barty, even though Iga Swiatek, Anett Kontaveit and Sakkari are now all above her in the rankings.
Barty announced earlier this month that she wouldn't be playing Indian Wells or Miami because her body hadn't recovered after winning the Australian Open.
Swiatek moved up to World No.2 and is putting pressure on Barty after becoming the first Polish player to win the Indian Wells title.
with AAP
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