Miami Open: Osaka survives huge scare against Starodubtseva to make second round

Naomi Osaka fought back from a set and a break down to battle her way past tenacious Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva, coming through 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Miami Open.

The Japanese was given a huge scare as she found herself a set and 4-2 down with Starodubtseva playing some excellent tennis.

But she reeled off four games in a row to erase the break and steal the second set to restore parity. Osaka then impressively rolled through the final set without dropping serve to move into the second round after a tense afternoon at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Osaka, ranked No 61, will face No 24 seed Liudmila Samsonova next.

Miami WTA 1000, other first-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.963.700, most recent results first):

• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Mayar Sherif vs. Lulu Sun
• Dayana Yastremska vs. Belinda Bencic
• Katie Boulter vs. Peyton Stearns
• Tyra Caterina Grant vs. Julia Grabher
• Alexandra Eala vs. Katie Volynets
• Suzan Lamens vs. Moyuka Uchijima
• Caroline Garcia vs. Anna Bondar
• Erika Andreeva vs. Elina Avanesyan
• Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Bernarda Pera
• McCartney Kessler vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Sayaka Ishii vs. Emma Raducanu
• Camila Osorio vs. Victoria Mboko
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Kimberly Birrell
• Kamilla Rakhimova vs. Anna Blinkova
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Xinyu Wang
• Olga Danilovic vs. Hailey Baptiste
• Petra Kvitova vs. Sofia Kenin
• Renata Zarazua vs. Ashlyn Krueger
• Taylor Townsend vs. Ann Li
• Rebeka Masarova vs. Greet Minnen
• Elena-Gabriela Ruse vs. Polina Kudermetova: tuesday
• Lauren Davis vs. Aoi Ito: tuesday
• Claire Liu vs. Linda Fruhvirtova: tuesday
• Rebecca Sramkova beat Lucrezia Stefanini (Q): 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
• Sorana Cirstea beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Lucia Bronzetti beat Jessica Bouzas Maneiro: 6-4, 6-3
• Katerina Siniakova beat Yue Yuan: 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4)
• Magda Linette beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Alycia Parks beat Varvara Gracheva: 3-6, 7-6, 6-3
• Viktoriya Tomova beat Catherine McNally: 6-3, 2-6, 6-3