Fans left agog as Marta Kostyuk audaciously seals place in Miami Open fourth round

Marta Kostyuk booked her place within the final 16 of the Miami Open with a 6-2 6-1 win over Anna Blinkova, with a match level that raised a couple of eyebrows.

The Ukrainian will play both Anna Kalinskaya or world No. 4 Jessica Pegula within the subsequent spherical, after wrapping up this match in beneath an hour.

Kostyuk seemed to be stuffed with confidence on the court docket, which was notably evident by the best way by which she obtained the job executed in South Florida.

On her first match level, the 22-year-old unleashed an audacious ace with an underarm serve to prevail in some type.

The world No. 29 cruised to her victory, breaking Blinkova’s serve thrice within the first set, and twice extra within the second.

At one level, it seemed like Kostyuk was on the right track for a bagel at 5-0 up earlier than the Russian claimed a maintain of serve to scale back the deficit to 5-1 – however it solely delayed the run to the profitable line.

Kostyuk has now reached the final 16 in each competitions on the Sunshine Double, and can look to surpass her efficiency at Indian Wells, the place she was overwhelmed by Qinwen Zheng.

Following Kostyuk’s underarm serve right here, it prompted dialog about earlier match factors received with underarm serves.

One of many more moderen examples got here in final yr’s Billie Jean King Cup, in a doubles tie between Italian duo Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani, and the Polish crew of Iga Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa.

Kalin Ivanovski managed to win a match by way of an underarm ace when he beat Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez in a boys’ second spherical match at Wimbledon in 2022.