While both Czech hopefuls celebrated advancing to the second round in Miami as part of Tuesday’s program, none of the three Czech women managed to enter the Florida 1000 on Wednesday. Marie Bouzková (25) lost 2:6, 4:6 to struggling Lin Zhu and will not defend last year’s third round, Linda Fruhvirtová (18) fell 6:4, 4:6, 2:6 in a battle with Shelby Rogers and former finalist Karolína Plíšková (31) was not enough 4:6, 6:2, 2:6 against her friend Donna Vekičová.
Bouzková – Lin Zhu 2:6, 4:6
Marie Bouzková met Lin Zhu after more than three years. In 2021, she clearly had the upper hand at a smaller event in Melbourne Park and leveled the mutual balance at 1:1, but in the opening round of the prestigious WTA 1000 event in Miami, she came up short.
The Czech entered the match as the odds favorite, however, after an unused break point at 2:1, she lost seven games in a row. She evened the score of the second set from 0:2 to 2:2, but then she hesitated on her own serve for the fourth time in the match. She faced the first match point on service and thanks to her excellent defense she turned it away, but she was unable to eliminate her opponent’s lead.
Match statistics. (@livesport)
The former champion of the Livesport Prague Open last year did not reach her first winning streak in major competitions on the highest circuit until May and her first quarter-final in August. This year, she did it right away at the opening event in Auckland, but including Miami, she did not manage more than one match in the following seven tournaments.
She started in Miami for the fifth time and in previous years she improved with each participation, last year she was eliminated in the third round. Unsuccessful defense of promotion to the top thirty-two will cost the Prague native membership in the TOP 40 ranking.
Zhu was only one set away from repeating her triumph in Hua Hin at the start of February, but then her form fell apart and she arrived in Miami on a five-game losing streak. In the second round, she will challenge fifth seed Jessica Pegula, with whom she lost both of her previous matches.
Rogersová – L. Fruhvirtová 4:6, 6:4, 6:2
Last year, Linda Fruhvirtová shined in Miami by advancing to the round of 16 and recorded one of her breakthrough results on the top tour, and in the same season she won her only title on the WTA circuit to date. However, she finished her next two starts at this venue in the first round and again a year later lost the battle in it to an opponent who was not in the top 100 rankings.
The Czech teenager, who received a wild card for this year, lost to Shelby Rogers in all three sets by a break. While she was able to eliminate the deficit in the opening act and finally took it to her side after 41 minutes, she was unsuccessful in the next two sets.
In the middle one, she already fell short of two breaks, but still had two chances to equalize the score. In the decisive set, on the other hand, she did not have a single opportunity to take away the American’s serve and after a more than two-hour battle, she said goodbye to the Florida metropolis.
Match statistics. (@livesport)
Last fall, Fruhvirtová revived for a while on the Asian concrete, but at the end of the season she fell into another crisis and continues to do so this year as well. In the current year, she has already played nine tournaments and has only two wins in the main competitions, moreover, she has not defeated more than one opponent at a single event. The former world No. 49 is now nearly 100 places behind her ranking high.
Rogers is returning from an abdominal muscle injury that ended last season after Wimbledon. The former world number 32 is now up to 325th in the ranking and is playing her third tournament after a break, at the Australian Open she clearly lost the first round to Emma Raducanu and gave up the qualifying final in Austin. In Miami, she already passed the first round in her fifth start in a row, and in the next one she will compete against the seeded Anastasija Pavlyuchenkova.
Linda Fruhvirtova fought hard, but in the end it was not enough for home Shelby Rogers. pic.twitter.com/48jsIKxWew
— CANAL+ Sport CZ/SK (@CANALSportCZ) March 20, 2024
Vekičová – Plíšková 6:4, 2:6, 6:2
Karolína Plíšková had a great February, but March, on the other hand, can only be evaluated negatively. After Indian Wells, where she was not good enough for Anna Blinková, she said goodbye in the first round to the next WTA 1000 event in Miami.
The former world number one ran into her friend and favorite opponent Donna Vekičová in the opening match, with whom she had won seven of her previous nine fights. Plíšková managed to eliminate the break deficit at the beginning of the first act and in the sixth game she had two chances to take the lead. Vekičová, however, averted both threats, took the Czech’s serve again in the ninth game and completed the set without any problems.
In the second set, at the end of which Vekičová had her right knee treated, Plíšková clearly had the upper hand, and after an hour and a half, the decisive action came. In it, Plíšková got the short end of the stick. Right in the opening game, she lost her service with a clean game, she got to only one break point in the whole set, and the excellent Croatian player has already won only two games. In the seventh game, she averted the opening two match points, but she faced the third on the return and could not find an answer to it.
Match statistics. (@livesport)
Pliskova reignited her career in February when she snapped a 14-match winless streak and won her first title in more than four years in Cluj. She then added a semi-final in the 1,000 in Doha and a round of 16 in the same category event in Dubai.
But she didn’t bring her great February form to the United States, she finished right at the start in Indian Wells and Miami. She performed in Miami for the eleventh time in her career, after the finals in 2019, she was never among the top sixteen, and her record in the opening matches worsened to 7:4.
Karolína Plíšková did not follow up on the excellent results of the last weeks. She lost to Donna Vekic in three sets and ends in the first round at the Miami tournament. pic.twitter.com/OhwB42iPM1
— CANAL+ Sport CZ/SK (@CANALSportCZ) March 20, 2024
Vekičová also presented herself in Indian Wells and also started there with a duel with the former world number one, losing in two sets to the returning Caroline Wozniacki. In Miami, in her last three visits, she reached the third round, which is her maximum here. He will play with Ekaterina Alexandrova for his settlement.
Plíšková, Bouzková and Linda Fruhvirtová could complement seeded Linda Nosková, Kateřina Siniaková and Brenda Fruhvirtová in the second round. The top four Czech women in the ranking will not start in Miami: Markéta Vondroušová left the United States due to the death of her grandfather, Karolína Muchová is after wrist surgery, Barbora Krejčíková withdrew due to illness, and last year’s champion Petra Kvitová is pregnant.
Results of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami
The article was originally published for Livesport Zprávy.
2024-03-20 23:03:45
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