Aussie world number one Ash Barty has pulled a cat out the bag to win her opening match at the Miami Open, defeating Kristína Kučová in three sets.
Barty was in desperate trouble in the deciding frame, down 5-3 and even saving a match point before she won four straight games to progress to the third, having been granted a bye in the first round.
The defending champ looked all but eliminated in the final set as the Slovakian world number 147 threatened an almighty boilover until Barty switched gears when it counted to see out the 6-3 4-6 7-5 win.
Defending champ mentality 👉🧠
— wta (@WTA) March 25, 2021
Top seed @ashbarty saves a match point and escapes Kucova to reach the third round!#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/LTUCFVTjE1
After the match, the Queenslander said she was proud to have gutsed out the victory.
"Never give up, never ever give up," she said.
"You're always in with a chance and today was really hard work and I enjoyed every single minute of it.
"There's nothing like coming through a test like that and now I get another opportunity in a couple of days time to play another tough match and test myself again.
"I just stayed in the moment and never gave up and kept trying to find a way.
"It's been a while since I've played a lot of matches back to back so I'm really excited now that I get another opportunity to do that and keep building that trust in matches."
In her first match outside Australia since February last year, Barty served 15 aces, though her serve was broken on four occasions.
Barty will now take on Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in the third round.
Fellow Aussies Ajla Tomljanovic and Storm Sanders await their respective second-round meetings with Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula.
As for the men, Thanasi Kokkinakis continued his resurgence with a strong 6-3 6-3 win over Japanese teenager Shintaro Mochizuki.
He'll face Hungarian 29th seed Marton Fucsovics, while Jordan Thompson meets Milos Raonic, having taken care of Argentine Federico Delbonis 7-6(8) 6-4 in the first round.
