Miami Open: Qualifier Townsend upsets Mertens to reach third round

American qualifier Taylor Townsend moved into the third round of the Miami Open by defeating Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 25 seed, 6-2, 6-2 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday evening.

Townsend, ranked No 72, will face the winner of the match between Dane qualifier Clara Tauson and Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 4 seed, next.

Ahead of her victory, the American edged out Italian Lucia Bronzetti (3-6, 6-3, 6-4).

Miami WTA 1000, other second-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.770.480, most recent results first):

• Clara Tauson vs. Elena Rybakina
• Paula Badosa vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Elina Avanesyan vs. Ons Jabeur
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Danielle Collins
• Sloane Stephens vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Claire Liu
• Naomi Osaka vs. Elina Svitolina
• Caroline Garcia vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Arantxa Rus vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Coco Gauff vs. Nadia Podoroska
• Lin Zhu vs. Jessica Pegula
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Emiliana Arango
• Storm Hunter vs. Emma Navarro
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Katie Volynets
• Donna Vekic vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Shelby Rogers
• Maria Timofeeva vs. Linda Noskova
• Iga Swiatek vs. Camila Giorgi
• Peyton Stearns vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Xinyu Wang
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Daria Saville vs. Dayana Yastremska
• Diana Shnaider vs. Madison Keys
• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Laura Siegemund vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Maria Sakkari vs. Yue Yuan
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Caroline Wozniacki
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Greet Minnen
• Anna Kalinskaya vs. Xiyu Wang
• Diane Parry vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Katie Boulter (24) beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (WC): 7-6 (5), 1-0 ret.