Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka advance at Miami Open

No. 3 seed Coco Gauff defeated Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday to advance to the Round of 16 at the Miami Open for the second consecutive year.

The 21-year-old is the youngest to accomplish that feat since Garbine Muguruza of Spain did so in 2012-13. Gauff has never moved past this round in Miami, however.

Gauff moved to 5-5 in 10 meetings against Sakkari, the 28th seed. Earlier this month, Gauff defeated Sakkari at another WTA 1000 event, winning 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the third round at Indian Wells.

"I think it was just one of those things that you would like to play the exact same way so you can replicate the same result," Gauff said. "But you know any smart person isn't going to play you the exact same way as they did two weeks ago after a loss. And she didn't. She played different.

"I do think she played better today. I also think I played better than Indian Wells, so I think that was the difference."

On Saturday, Gauff won points on 64 percent (21 of 33) of her first serves, compared to 47 percent (17 of 36) for Sakkari. She also converted five of eight break points and limited her double faults to three.

In the next round, she will face Magda Linette of Poland, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Czech qualifier Linda Fruhvirtova.

Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus moved on after Elena Gabriela Ruse of Germany retired with a right thigh injury after dropping the first set 6-1 in 40 minutes.

Ons Jabeur of Tunisia suffered a left leg injury and also retired, down 4-3 in the first set of her match against Italy's Jasmine Paolini, the sixth seed.

Paolini said she had sympathy for her opponent.

"She's such a great person and to see her injured on the court," Paolini said after the match. "Hope she's going to be back soon."

In the next round, Paolini will meet Japan's Naomi Osaka for the first time. Osaka outlasted American wild card Hailey Baptiste 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 in a match that lasted just three seconds short of three hours -- the longest women's match in the tournament.

Paolini's brief match lasted just 31 minutes, but Osaka said she doesn't expected the disparity of time on the court to have much impact.

"I feel fine right now," she said. "I'm not sure about (Sunday) morning. But I also feel like I've built up a pretty good tolerance and fitness. I think while I was playing, I felt like I could play some more, so I feel like that's a good sign."

Also advancing were Ashlyn Krueger, who defeated Leylah Fernandez of Canada -- the 26th seed -- 6-1, 7-5 in 92 minutes. She will next play the winner of Saturday's late match between ninth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China and Taylor Townsend.

--Field Level Media