Dreaming double: Rybakina saves match point, rallies past Badosa in Miami

Elena Rybakina kept her winning streak – and Sunshine Double hopes – alive on Saturday evening as she battled back from the brink to defeat Paula Badosa, the No 21 seed, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night.

Rybakina calmly saved a match point while serving at 4-5, 30-40 in the second set, and took over the run of play from that point onward as the icy cool Kazakh notched her 10th consecutive victory and improved to 18-4 on the season.

Rybakina converted her fourth break point to lead 6-5 in the second set against Badosa, then served out the middle set without complication.

The third set was on serve through six games, but Rybakina broke it open with a break for 4-3 and an insurance break to close out the contest in two hours and 32 minutes.

She did it with poise – and power. Rybakina hit 60 winners on the night, against just 16 for Badosa.

Badosa drops to 0-3 vs the top 10 with the loss.

Rybakina, ranked No 7, will play the winner of the match between Croat Petra Martic, the No 29 seed, and Belgian Elise Mertens next.

The Kazakh won against Russian Anna Kalinskaya (7-5, 4-6, 6-3) ahead of her victory.

In the previous round of the Miami tournament, Badosa, ranked No 29, won against German qualifier Laura Siegemund (7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-2).

Miami WTA 1000, other third-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Marie Bouzkova vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Madison Keys
• Petra Kvitova vs. Donna Vekic
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Belinda Bencic
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Karolina Muchova
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Sofia Kenin
• Karolina Pliskova vs. Marketa Vondrousova
• Magdalena Frech vs. Varvara Gracheva
• Petra Martic vs. Elise Mertens
• Martina Trevisan (25) beat Claire Liu: 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Danielle Collins (30): 6-1, 7-6
• Magda Linette (20) beat Victoria Azarenka (14): 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4
• Anastasia Potapova (27) beat Coco Gauff (6): 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2
• Qinwen Zheng (23) beat Liudmila Samsonova (12): 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3
• Jelena Ostapenko (24) beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (13): 6-2, 4-6, 6-3