American prospect Taylor Townsend upset Italian 25th seed Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-2 yesterday at the WTA Miami Open before rain halted play for the second consecutive day.
The 20-year-old left-hander’s victory over the 2015 US Open runner-up was among her top career triumphs and sets up a possible meeting with seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
Indian Wells finalist Kuznetsova must get past Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella in her second-round contest to reach the third-round meeting with world number 111 Townsend, a Miami qualifier.
“I played really well and I am happy with that result,” Townsend said of her victory over Vinci. “I’ve had some tough matches here. I think I was a lot more solid than I have been in the last couple of days.
“All the things that didn’t really work... it came together today.”
Townsend has never played Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open champion, and acknowledged it would be a huge challenge.
“I really like watching her play,” Townsend said.
“She has won two Slams and is a great player who is playing some of her best tennis now. I am playing well. I’ve got four matches under my belt and I don’t have anything to lose.”
Earlier on Thursday, Slovakian fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova needed to dig deep to fight past Paraguayan qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg.
The 90-minute encounter was far tougher for Cibulkova than the 6-3 6-2 scoreline suggests and she was relieved with the win.
“I just stayed aggressive,” she said. “It was my first match here, so it was pretty hot and it wasn’t easy conditions. But I made it through. I’d never played her before, so that’s always a new experience. I’m glad I got the job done.”
Cibulkova faces another tough test, though, against Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, who fought her way past Croatian 29th seed Ana Konjuh 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-2.
Agnieszka Radwanska beat China’s Wang Qiang 7-6, 6-1 and Caroline Wozniacki comfortably went through 6-1, 6-2 against Varvara Lepchenko.

Tomic pulls out at Miami with back injury
Bernard Tomic’s woes continued on Thursday as he pulled out of the Miami Open due to a back injury, the latest setback in a disappointing year for the Australian.
Ranked 17th in the world as recently as November, Tomic has tumbled down the rankings to 44th. Since a third-round Australian Open exit, the 24-year-old has lost four first-round matches to lowly ranked opponents.
The most recent setback came at Indian Wells, where he was beaten by 112th-ranked Bjorn Fratangelo of the United States. At Acapulco in February, Tomic retired from his opening match citing “unbearable heat” and the fact that he withdrew from four ATP matches last year has led to some questioning of his attitude.
Tomic was due to face Kazakh qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin at Crandon Park on Thursday but pulled out shortly before the contest was due to begin.
Lucky loser Mikhail Youzhny of Russia took Tomic’s place in the first-round contest, but was ousted 6-4, 6-1.