British No 1 Katie Boulter missed out on a place in the Miami Open quarter-finals after she lost in straight sets to Victoria Azarenka.
Boulter had broken new ground with victory over Beatriz Haddad Maia in the previous round to reach the last 16 of the tournament for the first time, but she saw her journey in Florida end after she was ground down by her veteran opponent.
A marathon first set went the way of former world No 1 Azarenka and it proved pivotal with Boulter unable to keep up her level in set two before she lost 7-5 6-1.
Two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka looked on course to cruise past the recent San Diego Open winner when she established a 5-2 lead in the first set.
World No 30 Boulter had already faced a string of break points by this point and then saved a number of set points in an eighth game which sparked her into life.
She broke back against the Belarusian before she held again to level at 5-5.
However, with a tie-breaker on the horizon, Azarenka showed her experience to claim another break before she closed out a 71-minute first set.
The momentum had firmly swung now and Azarenka went on to break Boulter at the start of the second.
Another break followed before another poor service return by Boulter sealed Azarenka’s passage into the last eight where she will face Yulia Putintseva.
No 23 seed Caroline Garcia of France moved into the quarter-finals in Miami for the first time in her career with a gritty 6-3 1-6 6-2 upset of third seed and local hope Coco Gauff.
Highlights of the Round of 16 game between Coco Gauff and Caroline Garcia at the Miami Open
Garcia ousted southern Florida resident Gauff after one hour, 43 minutes of play, putting the Frenchwoman into her first quarter-final of the 2024 season. Garcia now leads Gauff 3-2 in their head-to-head, with Garcia having won their last three meetings.
Monday marked Garcia’s first win over a top-10 player since the end of 2022, when she notched four top-10 wins en route to the title at the 2022 WTA Finals (including a round-robin victory over Gauff). Since that triumph, Garcia had lost her next seven matches against top-10 players.
However, former World No 4 Garcia has put together another hot streak in Miami, and she has now tallied a total of 25 Top 10 wins in her career. Before ousting reigning US Open champion Gauff, Garcia beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka for the second time this year in the previous round.
Garcia will now meet the winner of the match between unseeded Danielle Collins of the United States and No 19 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania. Collins is a former top-10 player and 2022 Australian Open finalist, while Cirstea was a semi-finalist in Miami just last year.
Elsewhere, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina joined Garcia at the quarter-final stage with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Madison Keys.
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