Miami Open: Hsieh Su-Wei knocks out Naomi Osaka knocked out, Serena Williams pulls out due to injury

Naomi Osaka crashed out of the third round of the Miami Open on Saturday as Hsieh Su-Wei exacted revenge for a painful Australian Open defeat with a 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory.

World number one Osaka had looked in little danger after winning the first set and moving a break ahead in the second.

But Taiwan’s Hsieh, who was a set and 4-1 up in Melbourne earlier this year before losing to the Japanese star in the third round, battled superbly.

“This was a very emotional win for me,” said Hsieh, whose 39 winners were one less than her opponent. “Any time you beat one of the top players it is amazing.”

Osaka was coming off a fourth-round exit at Indian Wells, but Hsieh’s coach said her victory wasn’t all that surprising.

“She has enough experience to stay strong and you saw that,” French coach Frederic Aniere, who has worked with Hsieh for the last two years and is also her boyfriend, told AFP.

“Yes it’s huge, but for her it’s not a big surprise.”

Osaka’s second-round win over Belgian Yanina Wickmayer on Friday saw a second set wobble from the two-time Grand Slam winning star and it was more of the same against Hsieh, who simply refused to give up the fight.

“I was kind of immature because I was thinking too much, like everything was on my racquet,” admitted Osaka. “I got ahead of myself.

“Of course I want to win every match and I think I have dealt with people always asking me if I am going to win because I have number one next to my name,” added the Japanese star.

I thought I was doing fine with that but I guess I am not.”

The 33-year-old Hsieh will play Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round of the women’s draw, which now looks wide open following Osaka’s defeat and former world number one Serena Williams’s surprise exit with a left knee injury.

In the late game, unseeded Canadian Bianca Andreescu beat Angelique Kerber for the second time in a week 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, outlasting the German eighth seed in a two hour, nine minute three setter.

The duo also met in the WTA Indian Wells final, with Andreescu winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Disappointed Serena

Earlier, Serena Williams withdrew from her third round match against Wang Qiang citing a left knee injury.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion’s withdrawal comes a day after she beat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in three sets to reach the third round.

“I am disappointed to withdraw from the Miami Open due to a left knee injury,” said Williams, an eight-time winner in Miami who has completed just seven matches this year.

The 37-year-old superstar, now ranked 10th in the world, appeared to be moving freely against Peterson, but said she needed to play better than she did in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 win.

Williams fell in a three-set battle with Czech Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.

In her first tournament since then, at Indian Wells this month, she defeated former world number one Victoria Azarenka in her opening match but then retired while trailing against another former No. 1, Garbine Muguruza, with a viral illness.