The top-seeded women's player, Aryna Sabalenka, begins her 2025 Miami Open journey on Friday when she faces Viktoriya Tomova in the round of 64.
To get to this stage of the tournament for a second consecutive year the Bulgarian defeated American Caty McNally 6-3 2-6 6-3 on Wednesday.
Match preview
Coming off a heartbreaking defeat in the final of the Indian Wells Open earlier this month, Sabalenka is still in search of her second singles title on tour in 2025.
The 26-year-old may have lost that tournament to Mirra Andreeva (6-2 4-6 3-6), but getting to the final should give her confidence, seeing as she did not make it beyond the round of 16 in her previous two singles events before that.
Sabalenka may see this tournament as an opportunity to exercise past demons, having been knocked out in the round of 32 of the 2024 Miami Open by Anhelina Kalinina 4-6 6-1 1-6.
For a player of her calibre, who has three Grand Slam titles to her name, it is surprising that she has been eliminated in the third round of this event in three of her six appearances and has never made it beyond the quarter-finals.
At the same time, she has only lost one of her last 19 opening matches at a WTA singles competition, falling in three sets to Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Qatar Open earlier this year.
In 21 matches played this year, Sabalenka has hit 65 aces but has not always been sharp on first serves, boasting a first serve percentage of 64.5.
While Viktoriya Tomova did not hit a single ace in her opening match at this event, the native of Sofia played a relatively error-free encounter, without a single double fault.
Her clean play enabled her to overcome an opponent who had a high first serve percentage of 81%, with Tomova also winning five of her break point opportunities.
On Friday, she has a chance to win her first two matches at a singles event for the first time since the Transylvania Open last month, making it to the quarter-finals on that occasion before losing to Katerina Siniakova in straight sets.
As evidenced by her opening match at the Miami Open this year, the Bulgarian does not have a powerful serve, with just eight aces this year, while she has a first-serve winning percentage of 61.8.
The fact that she did not hit any double faults in her first match should be encouraging for her as she prepares to face one of the best women's players in the world, especially knowing that Tomova has hit 38 double faults in 2025.
To upset a player like Sabalenka, you would think Tomova will need to improve her return game, having converted just 36.3% of her break points in 2025.
Tournament so far
Viktoriya Tomova:
First round: vs. Caty McNally 6-3 2-6 6-3
Head To Head
Budapest Open (2016) - Second Round: Tomova wins 7-6 6-4
The first time these two met, Sabalenka was just a teenager and played like a person with raw talent that had not refined her skills yet, hitting four double faults, while winning just 52% of her first serves.
To her credit, Tomova won six break points and nearly half of her return points (49%) to take the match in two very close sets.
We say: Sabalenka to win in two sets
Sabalenka has not won as much as she would like lately, but one thing she can never be accused of is looking too far ahead, and we expect her powerful forehand will lead to a lot of unforced errors from Tomova.
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