Agnieszka Radwanska dumped out of Miami Open by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
Sunday 26 March 2017 15:02, UK
Agnieszka Radwanska, the fifth seed, was the highest-ranked woman to lose in the Miami Open on Saturday, going out to Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Radwanska had no answer to the 26th seed, who eased to a 6-0 6-3 win in barely an hour.
Lucic-Baroni also beat Radwanska at the Australian Open in January, in the second round en route to the semi-finals, where she eventually fell to Serena Williams.
"She was playing unbelievable tennis today," Radwanska told the WTA about Lucic-Baroni.
"She was very solid from the beginning, very aggressive, hitting everything with unbelievable speed. I couldn't do much.
"The first set went so quickly, and in the second set I had chances, but I didn't come back and unfortunately I missed the chance to stay in the match. She was just too good today."
Sixth seed Garbine Muguruza could have been a second high-profile casualty, but she overcame a slow start to beat China's Zhang Shuai 4-6 6-2-6-2 in over two hours.
"Since I've started the year, I've had a lot of matches like this, and I'm expecting that every time I go on court," Muguruza said.
"A win is a win, I don't wish to have matches this tough every day, but I'm very happy with the way I'm facing them."
It was Muguruza's second victory over Zhang in barely a month after their match in Doha in February that also went three sets.
Elsewhere, second seed Karolina Pliskova's match went according to form, the Czech beating Kazak 27th seed Yulia Putintseva 7-5 6-3.
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But 17th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was sent packing, beaten 4-6 6-0 6-3 by American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
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