THURSDAY SCHEDULE and PREVIEW | 2024 Miami Open: Elena RYBAKINA, Caroline WOZNIACKI and Maria SAKKARI all in action

Thursday is here at the Miami Open with the seeded players coming into the foray albeit with a fairly weakened line-up with Aryna Sabalenka instead starting her campaign on Friday which means a glaring miss from this side of the draw.

Sabalenka was given an extra day after the passing of her ex-boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov and will instead begin on Friday. Of course the first round is only being completed too for the men with the ATP edition starting a day later. Our preview takes you through some of the top ties and talking points as action continues in Florida.

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Rybakina, Sakkari and Wozniacki among leading lights, Nishikori set for latest comeback

The main star in action on Thursday is Elena Rybakina with the Kazakh set to open her campaign against a qualifier in Clara Tauson. It will be interesting to see which Rybakina turns up with illness seeing her withdraw from Indian Wells and has been a main factor behind stop start success in recent months. She again defends another barrel of points here after reaching the final last year losing to a resurgent Petra Kvitova. But will have designs on the title this time.

As will Maria Sakkari after a superb run at Indian Wells reaching the final albeit with the same fate as two years ago despite a new mindset seemingly there under new coach David Witt. She faces rising Chinese ace, Yue Yuan. Also on Stadium includes Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gael Monfils and the returning Madison Keys.

Two returnees to their respective tours headline elsewhere with Caroline Wozniacki set to face Anhelina Kalinina and Kei Nishikori will make another return after a long-time out and will face Sebastian Ofner. There is also the matter of Peyton Stearns v Victoria Azarenka which has an interesting caveat. The former invited former LMFAO singer, Redfoo who is a well-known tennis fan to her box in Miami after liking his energy at Indian Wells, who was next up but his ex-girlfriend in Azarenka.

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SCHEDULE Miami Open

Stadium -

Felix Auger-Aliassime v Adam Walton

Maria Sakkari v Yuan Yue

Diana Shnaider v Madison Keys

Not before 7:00pm: Dusan Lajovic v Gael Monfils

Not before 8:30pm: Clara Tauson v Elena Rybakina

Grandstand -

Diane Parry v Beatriz Haddad Maia

Sebastian Ofner v Kei Nishikori

Lorenzo Sonego v Dan Evans

Emilio Nava v Roberto Bautista Agut

Not before 7:00pm; Peyton Stearns v Victoria Azarenka

Butch Buchholz

Elise Mertens v Taylor Townsend

Anhelina Kalinina v Caroline Wozniacki

Aleksandar Kovecavic v Fabian Marozsan

Martin Landaluce v Jaume Munar

Roman Safiullin v Diego Schwartzman

Court 1

Laslo Djere v Coleman Wong

Alejandro Tabilo v Brandon Nakashima

Laura Siegemund v Jelena Ostapenko

Qinwen Zheng v Katerina Siniakova

Veronika Kudermetova v Xinyu Wang

Court 7

Daniel Altmaier v Harold Mayot

Daria Saville v Dayana Yastremska

Alexei Popyrin v Facundo Diaz Acosta

Court 5

Emil Ruusuvuori v Yannick Hanfmann

Daniel Elahi Galan v Alexander Shevchenko

Court 2

Katie Boulter v Brenda Fruhvirtova

Anna Kalinskaya v Xiyu Wang

Liudmila Samsonova v Yulia Putintseva

Court 3

Lesia Tsurenko v Greet Minnen

Alexandre Muller v Soonwoo Kwon

Aleksandar Vukic v Roberto Carballes Baena