Miami Open 2019: Serena Williams vs Wang Qiang, Preview and Prediction

In the eighteenth seed Wang Qiang, Serena Williams faces a tricky opponent in the Miami Open third round match.

This will be the first time that Qiang faces Serena, though she has played her elder sister three times. The Chinese has arrived at Miami on the back of some poor performances in previous tournaments.

She began the year with a third round loss at the Australian Open to Anastasija Sevastova. She entered the Indian Wells-Oracle Challenger series as the top seed in pursuit of some much-needed ranking points but was thwarted by Viktorija Golubic at the semi-final stage.

At the Indian Wells, she had a comparatively better performance, where she was able to reach the pre-quarters before she lost to the eventual champion Bianca Andreescu in straight sets.

But she looked quite impressive in her first match at Miami against the former world number four, Johanna Konta. After a close first set, she raised her game enough to bagel the Brit. Ironically, it was Konta who had handed a bagel last year to Serena, who is going to be Qiang’s next round opponent.

Serena’s performance in her first match at Miami against Rebecca Peterson was far from convincing. Having won the first set rather easily, she looked on course for a straight-sets victory, when she had two break point opportunities at 1-1 in the second set. But she not only failed to seize those opportunities, but inexplicably went on to lose five consecutive games thereafter to surrender the second set.

And when she went down a break point in the first game of the deciding set, she seemed to have completely lost her way. But she fought her way out of that difficult game to hold it, which spurred her into much better performance thereafter. She went on to break Peterson twice in the set and held the last game to love to seal an unexpectedly tight match.

One is not sure if Serena is fully fit at Miami. She certainly did not look to be at her best in the first match. If she does not play to her potential, she could be in for a rude shock against Qiang.

Prediction: Serena Williams to win in 3 Sets