Azarenka, Stephens roll in Miami openers
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Miami, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka was an easy first-round winner Wednesday at the $5.3 million Miami Open.
The former world No. 1 blew past Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1, 6-3 at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park.
Currently ranked 36th, Azarenka won the event in 2009 and 2011.
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Up next will be 20th-seeded fellow former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, who was last week's runner-up at Indian Wells and reached the final in Miami back in 2008.
American Sloane Stephens had no problem in her first-round match against Yanina Wickmayer, winning 6-1, 6-3.
In other action involving Americans, Christina McHale handled Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-4; Alison Riske downed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-4, 6-0; and Irina Falconi beat Monica Puig 7-6 (11-9), 7-6 (7-3); but Coco Vandeweghe lost to Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 and Lauren Davis fell to Sesil Karatantcheva 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
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Falconi will take on fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic and Radwanska will face Venus Williams, the 16th seed.
Nicole Vaidisova moved on by handling Timea Babos 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). Vaidisova, 25, retired from the WTA in 2010, but decided to return to the courts last year and has now played in two WTA-level events so far in 2015, going 1-1. She will play the No. 3 seed, Simona Halep, in the second round, following Halep's win at Indian Wells over the weekend.
Also winning in Day 2 action were Heather Watson, Tsvetana Pironkova, Belinda Bencic, Annika Beck, Julia Goerges, Stefanie Voegele, Elena Vesnina, Pauline Parmentier, Alison Van Uytvanck and Anastasia Pavlychenkova.
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Daria Gavrilova moved on when Marina Erakovic retired down 5-1 setting up a second-round match against fellow Russian Maria Sharapova, the No. 2 seed. Tajana Maria topped Roberta Vinci 7-6 (11-9), 6-3 to advance to play sixth- seeded Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.
Serena Williams, the world's No. 1 player, is scheduled to open her tournament on Friday against Monica Niculescu a week after pulling out of her semifinal at Indian Wells because of a knee injury.
The 2015 Miami champion will earn $900,400.