Mirra Andreeva appeared to have everything under control in the first set of her second-round match in Miami against McCartney Kessler.<\/p>\n
She needed just 21 minutes to grab the opener 6-1 in commanding fashion. But things tightened from there. The 18-year-old was pushed to three sets by the American, yet after an emotional exit in Indian Wells, Andreeva was intent on delivering a different outcome. She did just that, closing out a 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-1 victory in the early hours of Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Miami: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m kind of learning from my mistakes, I guess,\u201d Andreeva said in her on-court interview. \u201cSo I\u2019m just super happy to win this match, super happy to get the win tonight\u2026this morning. She\u2019s an amazing player, a very dangerous opponent, so I\u2019m just super happy to get revenge against her and to advance further in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n The revenge she referenced was for a straight-sets loss to Kessler last year in Montreal, their first meeting at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level. Their head-to-head is now even at one win apiece.<\/p>\n And while capturing revenge and maintaining her composure were reason enough for Andreeva to be \u201csuper happy,\u201d her overall level was another. An efficient brand of tennis powered her late-night (or early-morning) success.<\/p>\n She finished with 24 winners to 21 unforced errors, blending timely aggression with a commitment to keeping the ball in play against an opponent eager to take her own chances. Kessler finished with 25 winners but 36 unforced errors.<\/p>\n Forehand, backhand — even the occasional drop shot — everything was working for Andreeva as she earned her first victory on Stadium in Miami.<\/p>\n Her crowning highlight came while serving with a 4-1 lead in the opening set. A net cord pulled her forward, and she showed off her doubles instincts, defending a pair of Kessler returns before finally putting away a winner en route to a hold for 5-1.<\/p>\n She broke Kessler at love in the next game to seal the set.<\/p>\n The second set, however, went Kessler\u2019s way. The American returned the favor by breaking at love for a 2-1 lead, and while Andreeva broke back a few games later to level at 4-4, Kessler controlled the ensuing tiebreak. A forehand winner gave her a 4-2 edge — one she never relinquished — to force a decider.<\/p>\n But the final set, and ultimately the match, belonged to Andreeva. After the American held for 1-0, Andreeva won the final six games to survive the upset-minded Kessler in a match that happened to coincide with the first day of March Madness.<\/p>\n Next up for Andreeva is a date with No. 32 seed Marie Bouzkova in the third round. She leads the head-to-head 3-0, with all three wins coming in straight sets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mirra Andreeva appeared to have everything under control in the first set of her second-round match in Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,5516],"class_list":{"0":"post-198957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news","11":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}