Miami Open: Birthday girl Stephens knocks out Kerber to reach second round

Birthday girl Sloane Stephens moved into the second round of the Miami Open by defeating German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday.

“It’s a tough match to play someone else, obviously someone who is coming back, someone who has had amazing results, had an amazing career,” Stephens, who turned 31 on Wednesday, said afterwards.

“Obviously Angie is a great player. I knew it was going to be tough but just really happy to be through today and also play some solid tennis.”

Stephens, ranked No 41, will play No 19 seed Sorana Cirstea next.

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

• Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Naomi Osaka
• Storm Hunter vs. Martina Trevisan
• Katie Volynets vs. Sofia Kenin
• Viktoriya Tomova vs. Tamara Korpatsch
• Sara Sorribes Tormo vs. Arantxa Rus
• Nadia Podoroska vs. Ashlyn Krueger
• Donna Vekic vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Shelby Rogers vs. Linda Fruhvirtova
• Bernarda Pera vs. Danielle Collins: wednesday
• Claire Liu vs. Petra Martic: wednesday
• Tatjana Maria vs. Emiliana Arango: wednesday
• Elina Avanesyan beat Erika Andreeva (WC): 6-0, 3-6, 6-1
• Lin Zhu beat Marie Bouzkova: 6-2, 6-4
• Maria Timofeeva (Q) beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-3, 6-3
• Camila Giorgi beat Magdalena Frech: 6-4, 6-2
• Diane Parry beat Jaqueline Cristian: 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Yulia Putintseva beat Cristina Bucsa: 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
• Lesia Tsurenko beat Magda Linette: 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Paula Badosa beat Simona Halep (WC): 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
• Xiyu Wang beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Q): 6-1, 6-3
• Brenda Fruhvirtova (WC) beat Maria Lourdes Carle (Q): 6-3, 6-3
• Taylor Townsend (Q) beat Lucia Bronzetti: 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Caroline Wozniacki (WC) beat Clara Burel: 6-1, 6-4
• Katerina Siniakova beat Ana Bogdan: 6-2, 6-4
• Laura Siegemund (Q) beat Aleksandra Krunic (Q): 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
• Diana Shnaider beat Venus Williams (WC): 6-3, 6-3
• Clara Tauson (Q) beat Caroline Dolehide: 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
• Peyton Stearns beat Yafan Wang: 6-2, 6-3
• Xinyu Wang beat Hailey Baptiste (WC): 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Daria Saville beat Shuai Zhang: 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
• Yue Yuan beat Anna Blinkova: 6-4, 6-2