World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka improved to 20-4 for the season with a fairly comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over defending Miami champ Danielle Collins.
2025 WTA Tour
WTA 1000
Miami Open
Miami Gardens, Miami, Florida (Outdoor Hardcourts)
Selected Quarterfinals- 25th-26th March
26th March
Aryna Sabalenka (1) 0.3 vs Qinwen Zheng (9) 2.4
World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka improved to 20-4 for the season with a fairly comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over defending Miami champ Danielle Collins. The win also improved her dominant head-to-head record over the American to 7-0. Sabalenka has enjoyed a solid year, winning in Brisbane before that heartbreaking three-set defeat to Keys in the Aussie Open final. She underwhelmed in the Middle East but roared back to relevance at Indian Wells, ultimately losing to teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva in the final. This has actually been one of Sabalenka’s least productive WTA 1000 events: she is yet to reach a semifinal here in her glittering career. But the Belarusian has looked impervious this fortnight, dropping just 12 games in three matches (albeit it her round of 32 match with Ruse was cut short after one set). Next up for Sabalenka is a player she knows all too well: Qinwen Zheng.
This is one of those mental blocks that Qinwen Zheng eventually needs to overcome. The Chinese superstar is 0-5 in her career meetings with Sabalenka (including defeat in last year’s Aussie Open final). In fact, Chinese media dubbed Sabalenka “ the mountain that Qinwen Zheng is yet to overcome” towards the end of last year. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Be that as it may, Zheng really struggled in the opening salvos of this season, battling to replicate the form that saw her end the year as the WTA Finals runner-up. She went 1-3 in her first three events (losing three successive matches leading into Indian Wells). However, Zheng has shown remarkable improvement since the return of coach Pera Riba, reaching back-to-back WTA 1000 quarterfinals at Indian Wells and Miami. Zheng has looked really impressive on serve this fortnight, winning more than 75% of her first-serve points in all three of clashes (serving 20 aces in the process).
The Verdict: Sabalenka to win in three at 2.95- Sabalenka leads the rivalry 5-0. Zheng did push Sabalenka to three sets in Wuhan last year (no doubt buoyed by fanatical home support). But Sabalenka has only dropped a total of 20 games in the other four clashes. I think that Zheng’s vastly improved serving stats should give her plenty of confidence going into this clash. I still think that Sabalenka will prevail in the end. But perhaps Zheng will be able to push her to three sets for the 2nd time in her career.
