Pliskova eases through in Miami

MIAMI, Florida: Second seed   Karolina Pliskova cruised into  the third round of the Miami  Open, the Czech beating American  qualifier Madison Brengle 6-  1, 6-3 on Thursday.  While her serve was not at  its best, the 25-year-old Pliskova  never looked in danger, comfortably  dominating while winning  78 percent of return points.  “There were a few tight  games but I think I was pretty  solid. It went quite easy and I  was really happy to spend only  an hour out there because its  pretty hot and humid and so I  am happy to save some power  for the later matches,” said  Pliskova.  “The serve wasn’t really  great and hasn’t been for the  last few weeks but I think my  game from the baseline was  better, it’s improving, my  backhand is better, I was feeling  pretty good just want to  improve the serve a bit now,”  she added.  Slovakian fourth seed Dominika  Cibulkova needed to dig  deep to fight past Paraguayan  qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg.  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  CarolineWozniacki comfortably  went through 6-1, 6-2 against  Varvara Lepchenko.  Sixth-seeded Spaniard Garbine  Muguruza was trounced 6-  0 in the first set by American opponent  Christina McHale and  was down 3-2 onMcHale’s serve  in the second when rain began.  Play was eventually cancelled  for the day and McHale will  look to complete the upset on  Friday. —AFP