Photo Gallery: Miami Open Moments, Thursday, 3/31

During the second week of the Miami Open, we'll bring you exclusive photography from Anita Aguilar, who is covering the tournament for TENNIS.com. Steve Tignor provides the captions.

"Pain doesn't kill me. I kill the pain." That might sound like a slogan for Advil, but Svetlana Kuznetsova needed whatever inspiration she could get in Thursday's Miami heat.

Kuznetsova and Timea Bacsinszky slugged it out for nearly two hours.

They stretched...

They fell...

They stretched some more...

And they fell some more...

In the end it was Kuznetsova who advanced. The 2006 Miami Open champion is back in the final 10 years later.

Then they ended with a kiss.

If anything, the next match, between Gael Monfils and Kei Nishikori, was more hair-raising.

The two dug in...

...and battled through the hottest part of the day.

Monfils won the first set and was the more energetic player to start.

This may actually have gone back over the net.

Nishikori needed all the help from above he could get.

Here Kei got a lift into the shadows.

The crowd favorite Monfils reached match point five times.

And poured at least that many bottles of water over his head.

Did Gael celebrate a little...

...too early?

Nishikori's cap may have been askew...

...and he may barely have been able to stand...

...but he won in a third-set tiebreaker anyway.

Monfils, master of the losing handshake, came through in his own way. As always, even in defeat, he made it a match to remember.

Nick Kyrgios was flying high right from the start against Milos Raonic.

Raonic, by contrast, appeared tentative...

...and uncertain of how to counter his fellow big server.

Kyrgios threw a jolt into Crandon Park's Stadium court, and the crowd responded.

Victoria Azarenka concluded the evening in her customary way.

She battled...

She got her opponent, Angelique Kerber, on the run...

And after double faulting three times while serving for the match, she finally won. Vika is now 21-1 on the season, and has avenged her lone defeat, to Kerber in Australia.