Tennis-Osaka battles back to advance in Miami

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(Reuters) – A scrappy Naomi Osaka came from behind to beat Yuliia Starodubtseva 3-6 6-4 6-3 in the first round of the Miami Open on Tuesday for her first win since January’s Australian Open.

Osaka dropped the first set and trailed 4-2 in the second against the tournament qualifier before finding her rhythm in front of a supportive crowd on a sunny day in South Florida.

“I knew that I wasn’t playing too well, but I thought, let me try to stay on the court as long as possible because I consider Miami my home,” said Osaka, who was born in Japan before moving to the U.S. at a young age.

“(In Indian Wells) I was just over-hitting a lot, so I tried to use my legs. I was going to run into every corner if I had to, and we were going to have to play for three hours if she was going to beat me.”

The match hinged on a tense Osaka service game in the third set, where she fended off two break chances for her Ukrainian opponent and crushed an unreturnable serve to take a commanding 4-1 lead.

She would pound another serve Starodubtseva could not get back over the net on match point to secure the hard-fought victory in two hours and 28 minutes with coach Patrick Mouratoglou looking on.

Osaka was forced to withdraw from her third round match in Melbourne Park with an abdominal strain and piled up the errors in her first-round loss at Indian Wells earlier this month but moved well and showed her trademark power to grab the win on Tuesday.

The Japanese player faces 24th seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in the second round on Thursday, with the pair having split their two career head-to-head meetings.

American Alycia Parks, Czech Katerina Siniakova and Romanian Sorana Cirstea were among the other players who advanced to the second round of the WTA 1000 event.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Davis)