Indian Wells WTA 1000: Sabalenka through to third round
Aryna Sabalenka defeated McCartney Kessler 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Saturday. She’ll play Italian Lucia Bronzetti in the next round
© Tristan Lapierre / Tennis Majors
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed, won against American McCartney Kessler 7-6 (4), 6-3 to reach the third round of the Indian Wells WTA 1000 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Saturday.
Coming off disappointing weeks in Doha and Dubai, Sabalenka dominated Kessler to claim the win in a little over 90 minutes.
She hit six aces, averaged an impressive 86 percent on her first-serve points and broke the American twice, meanwhile keeping her serve unchallenged.
“It was a great match, and just super happy to win this tough second round,” the Belarusian said, assessing her performance during the press conference. “I’d say that Indian Wells feels like Grand Slam and, like, back to back Indian Wells, Miami. I love this tournament. For me feels pretty big. Psychologically, I think it’s not that tough.
“Middle East, especially if you play really well in Australia and you win a Grand Slam there or you make a final, you just need a little bit more time to recover, to have some time off, to have a good preparation. And for the last three seasons I’d say that Middle East was pretty tough for me, physically and mentally both.”
Sabalenka, ranked No 1, will play Italian Lucia Bronzetti next.
In the previous round of the Indian Wells tournament, Kessler, ranked No 48, beat Russian Anna Blinkova (6-1, 6-2).
Indian Wells WTA 1000, other second-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.963.700, most recent results first):
- Emma Navarro vs. Sorana Cirstea
- Alycia Parks vs. Diana Shnaider
- Liudmila Samsonova (24) beat Catherine McNally: 7-6 (8), 6-4
- Jaqueline Cristian beat Leylah Fernandez (27): 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3
- Belinda Bencic (WC) beat Amanda Anisimova (17): 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-1
- Daria Kasatkina (12) beat Sofia Kenin: 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
- Elise Mertens (28) beat Kimberly Birrell (Q): 6-4, 7-5
- Sonay Kartal (LL) beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (16): 6-2, 6-1
- Coco Gauff (3) beat Moyuka Uchijima: 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4)
- Donna Vekic (19) beat Elina Avanesyan: 6-3, 6-3
- Jasmine Paolini (6) beat Iva Jovic (WC): 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3
- Madison Keys (5) beat Anastasia Potapova: 6-3, 6-0
- Maria Sakkari (29) beat Viktoriya Tomova: 6-0, 6-3
- Polina Kudermetova beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (20): 7-5, 6-2
- Lucia Bronzetti beat Magdalena Frech (30): 6-3, 7-5
- Qinwen Zheng (8) beat Victoria Azarenka: 6-3, 6-4
- Danielle Collins (14) beat Hailey Baptiste (Q): 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
- Mirra Andreeva (9) beat Varvara Gracheva: 7-5, 6-4
- Elina Svitolina (23) beat Ashlyn Krueger: 6-1, 6-7 (8), 6-3
- Jessica Pegula (4) beat Magda Linette: 6-4, 6-2
- Xinyu Wang beat Jelena Ostapenko (26): 6-4, 6-4
- Iga Swiatek (2) beat Caroline Garcia: 6-2, 6-0
- Caroline Dolehide (WC) beat Eva Lys (LL): 7-6 (3), 6-4
- Lulu Sun beat Linda Noskova (31): 6-1, 6-4
- Dayana Yastremska beat Ons Jabeur (32): 6-3, 6-1
- Clara Tauson (22) beat Camila Osorio: 7-6 (3), 7-5
- Katerina Siniakova beat Yulia Putintseva (21): 6-2, 6-2
- Karolina Muchova (15) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-4, 6-3
- Marta Kostyuk (18) beat Robin Montgomery (WC): 6-1, 6-3
- Katie Boulter (25) beat Irina-Camelia Begu: 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-0
- Elena Rybakina (7) beat Suzan Lamens: 6-3, 6-3
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