Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka fought off an early challenge but several seeded players were eliminated in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday in Indian Wells, Calif.
Sabalenka, of Belarus, who is also the top-ranked player in the world, needed a tiebreaker to defeat McCartney Kessler of the U.S. 7-6 (4), 6-3 in just over an hour and a half.
After the contentious first set, Sabalenka broke Kessler’s serve to start the second, and then again to wrap it up on the first match point. Sabalenka had six aces to Kessler’s three, and won 86 percent of the points on her first serve.
Sabalenka, who was the runner-up to Elena Rybakina in 2023 at Indian Wells, had plenty of praise for Kessler, who has reached two finals this season, most recently last week at the ATX Open.
“It felt like a Grand Slam final — the atmosphere … it was so much fun. She’s playing incredible tennis, such a tough opponent. Honestly, I was just trying to focus on myself, on staying aggressive, put as much pressure as I could on her, and I’m really super happy that I was able to manage all the emotions and get this tough win,” Sabalenka said.
Third-seeded Coco Gauff had a tougher time, needing three sets to defeat Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
Trailing 5-3 in the third set, Uchijima was on serve and survived one match point, then dodged another match point and broke Gauff’s serve to tie the set at 5-5.
Both players lost serve in the final two games, and also on the first two points of the tiebreaker, before Gauff moved to a 5-2 lead. Even then she needed three match points to clinch the victory.
“I didn’t play as well as I would like to, but full credit to her,” Gauff said of Uchijima, who is ranked 52nd in the world. “She stepped it up when she needed to. But, yeah, just happy to get through it.”
Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula of the U.S., fifth-seeded countrywoman Madison Keys, No. 8 Qinwen Zheng of China and No. 9 Mirra Andreeva of Russia were among seeded players to advance with straight-set wins. No. 10 Emma Navarro of the U.S. needed three sets to advance.
Seeded players to lose included No. 16 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, No. 17 Amanda Anisimova of the U.S., No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, No. 26 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, No. 27 Leylah Fernandez of Canada and No. 30 Magdalena Frech of Poland.
