Serena Williams withdraws from the Miami Open and Petra Kvitova wins



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Serena Williams won her first Miami Open in 2002

Serena Williams, eight-time world champion, has retired from the Miami Open because of a knee injury.

American Williams qualified for the third round on Friday with a victory over Sweden's Rebecca Peterson, her seventh game only in 2019.

The Grand Slam winner, 23 times, should face Wang Qiang in the last 32 meetings, but the 27-year-old Chinese is now exempt.

Number two worldwide Petra Kvitova was tested by Croatian Donna Vekic but won 6-4 3-6 6-4 to reach the fourth round.

Williams, 37, said she was "disappointed to withdraw from the Miami Open because of a left knee injury".

She has now retired from two consecutive WTA events, having retired from last week's tournament in Indian Wells, suffering from a viral illness.

The last time Williams won the title in Miami in 2015, her last Grand Slam victory was won at the 2017 Australian Open, placing her behind Margaret Court's record with 24 singles titles.

Two-time Wimbledon champion and third-seeded Kvitova had to fight for more than two hours against Vekic in his third-round match on Saturday.

She will now meet Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the fourth round. Garcia had already defeated 15th seed Julia Gorges of Germany 6-0, 7-5.

World number one Naomi Osaka from Japan must play later the Hungarian Hsieh Su-wei.

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