Madison Keys squandered four match points in the second set yet persevered to earn a three-set win on Monday in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif.
The fifth-seeded American got past 28th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-4 for her 14th consecutive match win.
Keys, 30, captured an Australian Open warmup title in Adelaide, Australia, to open the year, then won the first major of the season for her first career Grand Slam title.
Serving with a 5-3 lead in the second set, Keys let two match points slip away. She subsequently had two match points in the second-set tiebreaker before Mertens ultimately prevailed on her second set point.
Keys got back on track by breaking Mertens’ serve to open the third set, but Mertens pulled level with a break for 3-3. Keys got the decisive break in the next game, then served out the match.
“Definitely kind of frustrating out there today,” Keys said. “Lots of ups and downs. To be able to figure that out and get the win is all it takes sometimes — it’s just about surviving.”
The player Keys beat in the Australian Open final, Aryna Sabalenka, experienced little difficulty at Indian Wells on Monday. The top-seeded Belarusian crushed Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-2.
The next opponent for Sabalenka will be the lowest-ranked player remaining in the field, Great Britain’s Sonay Kartal. The 23-year-old Brit, rated 83rd in the world, only got into the tournament as a lucky loser from qualifying when Sloane Stephens pulled out because of a foot ailment.
On Monday, Kartal defeated Russia’s Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-3 in the third round.
Kartal told wtatennis.com of facing Kudermetova, “With a game-style like hers, she’s going to hit winners left, right and center the entire match. It was just something I had already accepted and for me the most important thing was to hold serve and keep the scoreboard pressure on her.”
In other second-round action, third-seeded Coco Gauff of the United States dumped 29th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-6 (1), 6-2 by winning 76.6 percent of her first-serve points.
The 24th seed, Liudmila Samsonova, rallied to win an all-Russian matchup against 12th-seeded Daria Kasatkina 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic upset 13th-seeded Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-4, 6-4.
In evening action, 19th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia eliminated 10th-seeded Emma Navarro of the United States 7-6 (5), 6-1, and sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy outlasted Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
