Agnieszka Radwanska beats Simona Halep at Miami Open
Monday 26 March 2018 17:31, UK
World No 1 Simona Halep crashed out of the Miami Open after a three-set defeat to Agnieszka Radwanska in Florida.
With Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic knocked out of the men's event, the opening weekend of the Miami Open has seen a host of big names crash out early and Halep followed world No 2 Caroline Wozniacki in exiting the women's tournament early.
Wozniacki was beaten by Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig on Friday and Halep also faced an opponent of pedigree early on in the competition with 2012 Miami champion Radwanska setting up the clash with her second-round win over Alison van Uytvanck.
Radwanska rallied brilliantly to come from a set down to record a 3-6 6-2 6-3 victory, giving the Pole back-to-back victories for the first time January.
Halep's loss was the second consecutive tournament in which the Romanian had not made it to the final, having been beaten by eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the last four.
With the top two players in the world out, the pressure was on world no 3 Garbine Muguruza later in the day and she has no such concerns, racing through her match with Christina McHale for the loss of just three games.
Fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova was also victorious, battling past Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4 1-6 7-6.
Pliskova, a former world No 1, finally closed out the third-set tie-break by converting her seventh match point.
Doubles specialist Hsieh, who made it to the last 16 in the Australian Open, earned a break point to make it 5-5 in the first set before Pliskova prevailed.
The Czech broke at 5-3 in the third set after Hsieh had levelled the contest and then saved three match points to break back before Pliskova closed out the contest.
Live ATP Masters Tennis
You can watch more ATP Masters 1000 action from the Miami Open when we continue our coverage on Sunday from 4pm on Sky Sports Arena and from 7pm on Sky Sports Mix, which you can find on channel 287, and is free for all Sky customers
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