The 2023 Indian Wells Masters are underway, and after enjoying their first-round byes, the seeded stars of the WTA Tour finally took to the court in California.
The top two seeds, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, made extremely short work of their respective opening opponents as they strolled to straight-set wins.
Meanwhile, No 3 and No 4 seeds Jessica Pegula and Ons Jabeur also won, but both had to work hard to do so as they needed to come back from a set down.
However, world No 9 Belinda Bencic quickly crashed out as she fell to compatriot Jil Teichmann in three sets.
Read on as SBOTOP delivers the latest Indian Wells 2023 news from the WTA side.
Top seeds Swiatek, Sabalenka dominate in straight-set wins
Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka showed exactly why they are the top two seeds in this year’s Indian Wells Masters as they smashed their respective opponents en route to easy straight-sets wins.
Swiatek, the defending champion and favourite to win according to the Indian Wells 2023 odds, crushed American Claire Lu 6-0 6-1.
Swiatek admits there is a different feeling to being a defending champion at Indian Wells, but she did seem to be affected by the added pressure in her opening match.
“I feel like there’s a target on my back a little bit, which I didn’t feel last year. It’s a different situation, and I have to adjust to that. So I’m trying not to read a lot of these things.
“I don’t want it to influence me because I’m happy with all the work I’ve done. This is the example of how people’s attitudes changed a little bit – and I don’t think it’s a positive change – but for me for sure there is more pressure and expectations because of that.
“But I’m trying to [cope with] that in the best way possible. I think I’m doing good,” Swiatek said.
As for Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open after Swiatek’s early exit, she had an equally dominant victory over Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2 6-0.
Sabalenka was caught a bit by surprise by her opponent’s approach, but she quickly adjusted to sweep her aside.
“It was a tricky game, I would say,” Sabalenka said post-match. “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.”
Pegula and Jabeur survive scares
While the top two seeds barely broke a sweat in their opening matches, the next top two seeds, No 3 Jessica Pegula and No 4 Ons Jabeur, were made to work hard for their second-round victories.
After losing the first set to Camila Giorgi, Pegula battled back to beat the Italian, 3-6 6-1 6-2. It was the American’s fourth straight win against Giorgi, with each of the last three going to three sets.
As for Jabeur, she marked her return to action with a come-from-behind win against Magdalena Frech, 4-6 6-4 6-1.
Jabeur, a former US Open finalist who was playing her first match back after losing in the second round of the Australian Open, showed a bit of rust as she dropped the first set, in large part due to 18 unforced errors.
But Jabeur managed to overcome those early errors as she fought her way back. She won a crucial break to go up 5-4 in the second set, which she eventually took. And she broke Frech again in the first set of the third set, which she won in more convincing fashion.
Belinca Bencic loses to compatriot
The biggest WTA Tour star to fall in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters is Belinda Bencic. The world No 9 lost to Swiss compatriot Jil Teichmann 3-6 6-3 6-3, her second defeat in a row.
Bencic, who has already claimed two titles this year at Adelaide and Abu Dhabi, was coming off a straight-sets defeat to Karolina Muchova in the round of 16 in Dubai.
And Bencic was seemingly in control of the match as she won the opening set. But Teichmann stormed back as she capitalise on Bencic’s shaky service game to seal the comeback.
Teichmann will move on to face Swede Rebecca Peterson in the round of 32.
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