News & Events in Belarus

The Belarusian, ranked 8^th in the world, broke serve seven times, hit 29 winners and committed only 16 unforced errors against Kerber. The match lasted for 93 minutes.

Earlier, the Belarusian proved too strong for World No.67 Monica Puig, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round, took a solid, 6-3, 6-0, victory over Polish world number 110 Magda Linette in the third, saw off No.4 seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-4) to reach the quarterfinal where she beat World No.23 Johanna Konta of the UK 6-4, 6-2.

In the Miami Open final Victoria Azarenka will take on World No.19 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland (20) 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinal. Russia’s Kuznetsova knocked world number one Serena Williams of the United States out of contention in the fourth round.

Victoria Azarenka is 4-4 lifetime against Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Independent from the result of the final match which is due on 2 April, Victoria Azarenka will be back into the WTA top five. The Belarusian won the tournament in Miami in 2009 and 2011.

In the men’s doubles semifinal Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey of the Philippines lost to Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the United States 4-6, 2-6. In the other semifinal brothers Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States were defeated by Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France 3-6, 3-6. The men’s doubles final is scheduled for 2 April.

Max Mirnyi won the tournament four times: with Switzerland’s Roger Federer in 2003, Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman in 2005 and 2006, and Israel’s Andy Ram in 2009.

In men's singles play, world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face David Goffin (15) in the semifinal. No. 6-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan will face No. 24 Nick Kyrgios in the other semifinal. The men’s singles final is due on 3 April.