Miami - Day 8 WTA final four decided

Day Eight schedule in the Miami Open - the first ATP quarter finals and last of the WTA quarter finals.

Miami Open presented by Itaú - a WTA Premier Mandatory category tournament, on Hard Laykold, in Miami, Florida, USA, 20-31 March 2019.

Defending champion:

Sloane Stephens (13) who defeated Jelena Ostapenko (6) 7-6(5) 6-1

WTA quarter finals 

• Qiang Wang (18) v Simona Halep (2)

The two had met once before, in Indian Wells last year, where Halep won in straight sets.

Today Wang served first, and after several good rallies a Halep down the line backhand winner achieved a break of serve.  Wang immediately broke back, thanks largely to Halep errors.

A third successive break was consolidated by Halep whose forehand troubled Wang 3-1.

From 40-0, Wang lost three points, including double faulting for deuce.  Halep ended up breaking for the third time, and led 4-1.

A fifth break in six games occurred as Halep donated a second loose game to Wang.  Wang then held serve for the first time, surviving deuce, and forcing Halep wide and into error.

At 3-5, Wang hit a pair of winning backhands to reach 40-0, but lapsed to deuce, Halep herself producing a backhand winner.

Serve was eventually held, but Wang unable to prevent the second seed from serving out the set 6-4.

Wang had game point in the opening to set two, but Halep continued her pressure and broke the serve of the 18th seed.

It was then Wang’s turn to shine.  After breaking back for 1-1, the Chinese number one held to love in consecutive service games, in between cracking open the Romanian serve once more.  4-1 became 5-1, a Halep double fault delivering a third straight break of serve, and Wang had won 12 points in a row.

Serving for the set, Wang came up against Halep resistance with attacking tennis paying off for the second seed.

In fact Wang fell away completely, failing a second time to serve out the set, and leaving her opponent to finish off the match with the final six games.

Simona Halep won 6-4 7-5, and with a semi final win would regain the world #1 ranking.

• Karolina Pliskova (5) defeated Marketa Vondrousova 6-3 6-4

Semi final match ups 

Anett Kontaveit (21) v Ash Barty (12)

Karolina Pliskova (5) v Simona Halep (2)