Miami Open: Angelique Kerber reaches quarter-finals
Top seeds Angelique Kerber and Karolina Pliskova reached the Miami Open quarter-finals, while French Open champion Garbine Muguruza retired from her match with Caroline Wozniacki after dropping the first set.
Kerber (pictured), the top seed, cruised past Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki 6-2 6-2 while Czech second seed Pliskova beat 15th-seeded compatriot Barbora Strycova 6-1 6-4.
Kerber was barely tested in her 62-minute match during which she displayed a great arsenal of shots and was all over her opponents' serve.
She moves on to face Venus Williams, who beat Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 7-6 (7/4).
Pliskova cruised through her first set in 22 minutes and looked ready to wrap up a quick victory when she went ahead 5-2 in the second but Strycova found life late in the match breaking Pliskova then holding at love.
"Everything was fine, going well, until 6-1, 5-2," said Pliskova. "I was happy to close it because the end was tricky - the end was a little bit shaky."
Next for Pliskova will be a meeting with Australian Open semi-finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-5 6-4.
Sixth seed Muguruza took a medical timeout after dropping the first set 7-6(1) to Wozniacki after feeling dizzy and decided she was unable to continue.
"I started normal, and then like at 3-3 or something like this I started to feel headache, pain in my stomach," Muguruza said.
"And then it kind of went more and more during the match. When I was getting to the 5-4, something like this, I started to feel a little bit dizzy. I think it was the heat? The heat affected me suddenly like that."
With the win, Wozniacki advanced to sixth quarter-final in seven 2017 events.
Former Czech world No 5 Lucie Safarova beat Slovakian fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (7/5) 6-1 to reach the last eight but third seed Simona Halep survived a scare.
The Romanian saved a match point before eventually coming back to beat Sam Stosur 4-6 7-5 6-2.
The Romanian was staring down the barrel at a set and 5-2 down before she reeled off 11 of the next 13 games to book her last-eight spot.
She will now face Briton Johanna Konta, who saw off Lara Arruabarrena in straight sets, winning 7-5 6-1.
