No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek defeated Caroline Garcia for the second time in as many tournaments to reach the Miami Open third round, advancing 6-2, ??? in ??? minutes.

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Two weeks ago at the same stage of Indian Wells, Swiatek needed just 61 minutes to run away with a 6-2, 6-0 victory. This time round, Garcia put up slightly stiffer opposition -- Swiatek needed to overturn a 3-1 deficit and save one set point (serving down 5-4) in the second set. However, Swiatek delivered a clutch home stretch to reel off the last three games and improve to 6-1 overall against the Frenchwoman.

The Pole raced out of the blocks, winning the first 10 points before Garcia got on the board. But after breaking to go up 1-0 in the second set, she suddenly lost three straight games with a spate of unforced errors. Afterwards, Swiatek ascribed this to an energy dip.

"My energy level got down really fast," she said in her on-court interview. "So I tried to wake myself up, keep the intensity from the first set, follow through and go for it."

Other than that, 2022 Miami champion Swiatek had largely repeated the strategy that had been successful in Indian Wells, despite the slightly different conditions.

"The tactics was kind of the same, because our game styles are the same," she said. "But for sure the way you play changes a bit. Yeah, I mean, the ball bounces lower here, for sure, and the air also is not that dynamic. I feel like I have to be ready for a little bit faster game and be even lower on my legs.

"But that's going to be the case against every player, not only Caro. But I wouldn't say there was much difference. The only difference is I let her come back to the game in the second set a little bit."

The result made Swiatek the first player in the history of the WTA 1000 format (since 2009) to win 25 consecutive opening matches at this level, a streak that dates back to Cincinnati 2021, where she lost in the second round (after a first-round bye) to Ons Jabeur. In the Miami second round, she will next face No. 27 seed Elise Mertens, who delivered a succession of fine drop shots to defeat Peyton Stearns 6-4, 6-1.

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