Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus needed only 65 minutes to win her opening match at the BNP Paribas Open, routing Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 6-0 on Friday in the second round at Indian Wells, Calif.
Sabalenka improved her 2023 record to 14-1. She won the Australian Open after also capturing a warm-up event in Adelaide, Australia, and she fell in the quarterfinals of her most recent event, at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Rodina offered little in the way of a challenge, serving no aces and dropping all four of her break-point opportunities. Sabalenka won 80 percent of her first-serve points.
Sabalenka said postmatch, “It was (a) tricky game, I would say. I didn’t expect her (to) play that slow. I was struggling a little bit with adjusting for the balls, because it was super slow.
“Super happy with this win. Happy to win this match in two sets without struggling too much.”
Next up for Sabalenka is a match against Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, who defeated 29th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Coco Gauff of the United States also strolled through her second-round match, beating Spain’s Cristina Bucsa 6-2, 6-4. Gauff lost her serve just once and broke Busca’s serve on four of her five chances.
In an all-Swiss matchup, Jil Teichmann upset Belinda Bencic 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. China’s Xinyu Wang knocked out 18th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 6-2, 6-3. Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson led 3-0 when 22nd-seeded Shuai Zhang of China retired.
Other second-round winners included third-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States, seventh-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece, 11th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, 24th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 26th-seeded Anastasia Potapova of Russia and 27th-seeded Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.
Four players from the Czech Republic moved on: 15th-seeded Petra Kvitova, 16th-seeded Barbora Krejcikova, 17th-seeded Karolina Pliskova and Linda Noskova.
–Field Level Media
The Detroit Tigers will look to get their offense back on track when they begin a 10-game homestand with the opener of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals…
The Tampa Bay Rays will host their second straight American League East opponent when the New York Yankees travel south to start a four-game series on Thursday night. It will…
The Baltimore Orioles are in this position again, trying to win consecutive games for the first time this season when they play Thursday evening against the visiting Cleveland Guardians. “If…
Yankees return ‘home’ to face tenant Rays
Orioles vie for elusive win streak in clash vs. Guardians
Thriving on the road, Giants look for series win vs. Phillies
A’s eye rare series sweep in finale vs. reeling White Sox