Maria Sakkari suffered a shock round-two defeat as Beatriz Haddad Maia stunned the number four seed at the Miami Open.
The 26-year-old Greek, who was a finalist at Indian Wells last week, was out of sorts throughout a 4-6 6-1 6-2 defeat to the Brazilian.
Sakkari had risen to a career-high of world number three as a result of reaching the biggest final of her career in the desert, but she looks set to relinquish that spot almost immediately following this early exit in Florida.
Haddad Maia, ranked at 62 in the world, seemed to have more in the tank as she rampantly tore through the final two sets to complete a deserved success in just under two hours to move into round three in Miami for just the second time.
The 25-year-old clocked up her third victory over a top five opponent to set up a round three meeting with Madison Keys or Anhelina Kalinina.
Sakkari is the latest of a raft of seeds to have been dumped out in Miami. She joins the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Emma Raducanu, Elina Svitolina, Jelena Ostapenko and Elise Mertens in making an early exit from the tournament.
However, No.14 seed Coco Gauff is through to round three after gaining some semblance of revenge for her Australian Open defeat to Wang Qiang.
The 18-year-old American saw off the Chinese qualifier 7-5 6-4.
“I was just super-motivated today,” said Gauff during a post-match interview.
“There’s extra motivation because I’m playing at home, and also because I lost (to her) before.
“I feel like everything was working for me today, but especially my mindset – I had an opportunity to serve out the first set and also the last one, but I got broken. But I’m happy that I was able to break back.”
