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Miami - Second seed Karolina Pliskova cruised into the third round of the Miami Open, the Czech beating American qualifier Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday.
While her serve was not at its best, the 25-year-old Pliskova never looked in danger, comfortably dominating while winning 78 percent of return points.
"There were a few tight games but I think I was pretty solid. It went quite easy and I was really happy to spend only an hour out there because it's pretty hot and humid and so I am happy to save some power for the later matches," said Pliskova.
"The serve wasn't really great and hasn't been for the last few weeks but I think my game from the baseline was better, it's improving, my backhand is better, I was feeling pretty good just want to improve the serve a bit now," she added.
Pliskova reached the semi-finals of Indian Wells last week and she said she was keen to avoid a repeat of last year when she made the last four in California but fell at the first hurdle in Miami.
"It's a big tournament and I wanted to make it better this year. I will be ready for the next one," said the Czech, whose twin sister Kristyna is also in the Miami field.
Slovakian fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova needed to dig deep to fight past Paraguayan qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg.
The 90-minute encounter was far tougher for Cibulkova than the 6-3 6-2 scoreline suggests and she was relieved with the win.
"I just stayed aggressive," she said. "It was my first match here, so it was pretty hot and it wasn't easy conditions. But I made it through. I'd never played her before, so that's always a new experience. I'm glad I got the job done."
Cibulkova faces another tough test, though, against Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, who fought her way past Croatian 29th seed Ana Konjuh 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-2.
Agnieszka Radwanska beat China's Wang Qiang 7-6, 6-1 and Caroline Wozniacki comfortably went through 6-1, 6-2 against Varvara Lepchenko.
Sixth-seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza was trounced 6-0 in the first set by American opponent Christina McHale and was down 3-2 on McHale's serve in the second when rain began. Play was eventually cancelled for the day and McHale will look to complete the upset on Friday.
Results from ATP and WTA Miami Open on Thursday (x denotes seed):
Men
First round
Borna Coric (CRO) bt Marcel Granollers (ESP) 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-3
Damir Dzumhur (BIH) bt Chung Hyeon (KOR) 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/1)
Robin Haase (NED) bt Mikael Ymer (SWE) 7-5, 7-6 (7/3)
Darian King (BAR) bt Lukas Lacko (SVK) 7-6 (7/2), 6-4
Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) bt Denis Istomin (UZB) 6-4, 7-6 (7/0)
Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) bt Casper Ruud (NOR) 6-2, 6-1
Adrian Mannarino (FRA) bt Benjamin Becker (GER) 7-6 (8/6), 6-3
Tommy Robredo (ESP) bt Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
Andrey Rublev (RUS) bt Florian Mayer (GER) 6-1, 6-1
Diego Schwartzman (ARG) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4)
Andreas Seppi (ITA) bt Radu Albot (MDA) 6-4, 6-4
Frances Tiafoe (USA) bt Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) 7-5, 5-7, 6-1
Horacio Zeballos (ARG) bt Gastao Elias (POR) 6-7 (2/7), 6-2, 7-5
Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) bt Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 6-4, 6-1
Women
Second round
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x4) bt Veronica Cepede Royg (PAR) 6-3, 6-2
Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) bt Ana Konjuh (CRO x29) 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (8/10), 6-2
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO x26) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7/2)
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x5) bt Wang Qiang (CHN) 7-6 (7/3), 6-1
Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) bt Elina Svitolina (UKR x9) 7-5, 6-4
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS x17) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-0
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x12) bt Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 6-1, 6-2
Lucie Safarova (CZE) bt Daria Gavrilova (AUS x23) 6-2, 6-2
Zhang Shuai (CHN x30) bt Sara Errani (ITA) 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
Yulia Putintseva (KAZ x27) bt Carina Witthoeft (GER) 6-4, 6-4
Karolina Pliskova (CZE x2) bt Madison Brengle (USA) 6-1, 6-3
Jana Cepelova (SVK) bt Coco Vandeweghe (USA x18) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1
