Pliskova, Wozniacki first semifinal pair in Miami

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Wilson Blade 9

Tuesday featured two quarterfinal matches from the bottom half of the Miami Open draw, with Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Wozniacki advancing to the final four.

The second-seeded Pliskova avenged her surprise Australian Open quarterfinal defeat to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni with a 6-3 6-4 win over the 26th-seeded Croat, who was successful in handling her opponent’s powerful serves, but had less control of her own serves. In the first set, the 35-year-old Lucic-Baroni made nine double faults, including on set point, and had her serve broken four times. Her serve did start functioning in the second set, as she built a 4-2 lead, but Pliskova fought back by winning four consecutive games.

The 12th-seeded Wozniacki set up a showdown against Pliskova with a 6-4 6-3 win over another Czech, unseeded but always tricky Lucie Safarova. After a slow start, the Dane scurried for every ball and placed shots into uncomfortable positions for Safarova to earn another clash with Pliskova, to whom she recently lost in the Qatar Total Open final.

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