Italy’s Camila Giorgi survived a marathon first-round match at the Miami Open on Tuesday, edging Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4).
The contest lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes, more than an hour longer than any of the day’s other 15 matches. It tied the longest main-draw match on tour this season, as Russia’s Erika Andreeva downed Great Britain’s Harriet Dart in 3:32 at Austin, Texas, on Feb. 28.
The tight contest saw each player convert four of her 10 break points while Kanepi had a tiny edge in first-serve points won (75 percent to 74 percent) and both players won 48 percent of their second-serve points.
Giorgi survived a near collapse in the third set to advance. She led 5-0 before Kanepi rallied. Serving for the match at 5-3, Giorgi had a match point before losing the game, and then she had a match point at 4-5 on Kanepi’s serve that she couldn’t convert.
In the decisive tiebreaker, Giorgi jumped in front 4-2, then finally sealed the victory on her fourth match point of the day.
The result sends Giorgi to a second-round matchup against Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka, the Miami champion in 2009, 2011 and 2016. Azarenka, who is seeded 14th, got a first-round bye as one of the top 32 players in the draw.
The field is headed by No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 3 Jessica Pegula of the United States and No. 4 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
In other action on Tuesday, Belgium’s Elise Mertens cruised past the United States’ Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-4, Canada’s Rebecca Marino topped Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (4), 6-2 and Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu got past the Philippines’ Alexandra Eala 6-2, 7-5.
Other winners were Japan’s Nao Hibino, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, China’s Xiyu Wang, Sweden’s Mirjam Bjorklund, Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya and Evgeniya Rodina, the United States’ Claire Liu, the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova, Canada’s Katherine Sebov, Germany’s Laura Siegemund, Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova and Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic.
–Field Level Media