Coco Gauff, Sabalenka escape the rain in weather-impacted slate

by Daniel Perisse

On a Friday in which the rain was the main player at the Miami Open, only eight matches were completed, including the successful debuts of Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka.

The first one to take the court was Gauff, who had to wait several hours – however, the World No. 3 didn’t seem bothered with that and cruised past Argentinian qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-1 6-2, in 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Playing in front of her local South Florida crowd for the first time since obtaining the 2023 US Open title, Coco had 5 aces against none from Podoroska and won 87% of her first-serve points (34 out of 39).

“Yeah, it was a good match for me. Lots of waiting, but glad we were able to get it done today. I didn’t really think about trying to finish until the last game of the match when I kind of saw it getting darker, then they turned on the lights, and the temperature dropped. I’m from here, so I know that’s rain coming any second,” said the Delray Beach native.

At 20 years old, Gauff is the youngest player from the United States to hold a top-three seed at the Miami Open. She now faces lucky loser Oceane Dodin from France, who overcame Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

On the Grandstand, Sabalenka played her opening match against Paula Badosa and won 6-4 6-3. This was the fifth match between both players, who are close friends, and now Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 3-2. Her next opponent is Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.

Another young American to advance in the Women’s Singles draw was 22-year-old Emma Navarro, from New York, who overcame qualifier Storm Hunter, from Australia, 6-4 6-3.

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 21 seed, defeated American Shelby Rogers 6-2 6-1, and No. 14 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova halted Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-3 6-4.

The Friday upset came from Court Butch Buchholz, where Andrey Rublev, the No. 5 seed, was defeated by Tomas Machac 6-4 7-5.

This was the Czech’s biggest victory of his career, as he was 0-6 against Top 10 players and advances to the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time.

The other Men’s Singles match completed today had Frenchman Ugo Humbert as a winner against Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3.

Later, more heavy rain resulted in play suspension for the day.

Saturday’s order of play will be changed accordingly, including suspended and canceled matches from today and others that were initially scheduled for tomorrow. Please check the Miami Open website for more information.