Serena Win Sets Up Fourth Round Clash With Stephens in Indian Wells
In Serena Williams’ return to Indian Wells on Friday, the best player in the world battled through emotions and nerves to squeak out a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Monica Niculescu in the second-round. With those emotions and nerves subsided, Serena cruised in her match on Sunday, rolling past 28th seeded Zarina Diyas 6-2, 6-0. She won 12 of the final 13 matches to wrap up her victory in less than an hour.
“I was just trying to get there and win my match in the first round,” said Serena. “I ended up playing a girl who was super tricky and I was trying to stay focused, plus all the other stuff going on. But [Saturday] was super relaxing. It was good to have a day off to have a chance to prepare for my next match. Today, it definitely felt back to normal out there, just trying to feel the rhythm and feel the ball. I was able to do more of the right things and not make as many mistakes as I did in my last round.”
Her win sets up an intriguing match with fellow American Sloane Stephens, who outlasted 22nd-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4 to advance on Sunday.
“I’ve had some tough matches with Sloane,” Serena said of her next opponent. “She’s had an interesting year, but I’ve noticed she’s been playing really well. She moves well and tries to do her best for everything. It will be an interesting, good matchup for me.”
Third-seeded Romanian Simona Halep escaped a test from 26th-seeded American Varvara Lepchenko. Halep got the win 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 despite hitting seven double-faults and allowing 14 break point chances. She took advantage of 56 unforced errors from Lepchenko as Halep escaped a match where neither player was very sharp.
The Romanian gets a tough task in the fourth-round when she takes on 14th seeded Karolina Pliskova of France. Pliskova beat fellow rising star Garbine Muguruza 7-5, 6-4 to push through on Sunday, becoming the first player to reach 20 wins on the WTA tour this season.
Heather Watson notched the first top 10 win of her career, beating eighth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
The unseeded Brit outlasted Radwanska in a see-saw second set. She took a 2-0 advantage before seeing Radwanska win four straight games to go up 4-2. Watson answered right back and won four games in a row to close it out 6-4 and advance to the Indian Wells fourth-round.
“The match was a little bit up and down, but I knew she was going to try and step up her game and maybe play more aggressive or something different, and that’s what she did,” said Watson. “So I just kept my head and stuck to my own game plan. I knew I would have to play extremely well today and be just patient and pull the trigger at the right time—I think I found that balance very well today.”
Watson will play 12th-seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain in the next stage. The Spaniard edged Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-0 in a match that lasted over three hours.
In the other two matches on the women’s side on Sunday, 27th seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky continued her outstanding start to 2015 by beating eighth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 and 23rd-seeded Elina Svitolina downed 10th-seeded Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 7-5.
