Canadian Leylah Fernandez was eliminated from the Miami Open on Thursday, losing in straight sets to Czech Karolina Muchova.

Muchova beat Fernandez 6-4, 7-6(3) and will face former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan in the next round of the tournament.

Fernandez entered the Miami Open as the tournament’s No. 18 seed and earned a first-round bye while Muchova had to beat compatriot Tereza Martincova to reach the knockout stages.

Muchova dominated Fernandez, playing particularly well on his first serve, winning 71.2% of the points on his first serve, compared to just 58.8% of the points Fernandez won on his first serve.

WATCH | Fernandez falls to Muchova:

The 19-year-old from Laval, Que., has had a strong start to 2022, including a win in Monterrey, Mexico, but it’s her worst showing since her first-round elimination from the Australian Open .

Canadian male tennis stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are scheduled to begin their Miami Open tournaments on Friday.

Osaka sails to a 2nd consecutive victory

Two days, two wins and it looks easy.

Naomi Osaka seems to be back to being herself.

The former world No. 1 advanced to the third round of the Miami Open, easily beating 13th seed Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday. It was just as one-sided as the scoreline implied, with Osaka winning 89% of first-serve points and 61 of 100 points played in the match overall.

“It means a lot to me,” said Osaka, unranked in Miami after falling to No. 77 in the world because she has missed a lot of time to focus on her mental health in recent years. “She’s the first seeded player I’ve beaten this year.”

And when it comes to high-ranking opponents, the drought has been even longer.

Kerber is ranked 15th in the world; the last time Osaka beat a top-15 ranked player was when she was at the top of the leaderboard at the time. 10 Serena Williams in the semi-finals of the 2021 Australian Open. Osaka won that tournament and hasn’t made a final since, but her win over Kerber – who was 4-1 against Osaka entering Thursday – l certainly made her look like a candidate from Miami.

“I came into the match really wanting to play my game,” said Osaka, who is yet to drop a set in his two matches in Miami; she beat Astra Sharma 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday. “I still have the memories of all the matches she beat me before. So yeah, I just wanted to play the best I could. It worked out.”

Halep withdraws

Meanwhile, Simona Halep has pulled out of the Miami Open ahead of her second-round match on Thursday due to a leg injury that the former world No. 1 says will keep her out of action for three. weeks.

Romania’s 19th-seeded Halep, who reached the semi-finals in Indian Wells last week and was bye-released in the first round in Miami, said she felt severe pain in her left leg during training for his match with Australian wild card Daria Saville.

“I had been struggling with my thigh since my semi-final in Indian Wells and was hoping it would get better, but I had an MRI last night and sadly it showed a tear,” two-time champion Halep wrote. of the Grand Slam, on Twitter.

“My body needs time to heal and as a result I will be out of competition for three weeks. This means I had to make the very difficult decision to withdraw from Miami, Charleston and the Fed Cup.”