INDIAN WELLS, California – Top American woman Jessica Pegula, the No. 3 seed, rallied from a set down for the second consecutive match to beat 26th-seeded Anastasia Potapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 at the BNP Paribas Open.
World number two Aryna Sabalenka progressed via walkover after her third-round opponent Lesia Tsurenko withdrew.
Seventh seed Maria Sakkari secured victory in a two-and-a-half-hour third-round clash with Anhelina Kalinina, winning 3-6 6-2 6-4.
Pegula was close to losing to the 21-year-old upstart. She faced a break point while serving at 4-4 in the second set but got out of trouble and won the set. Pegula had to rally again in the third set, from 2-0 and 3-1 down, but drew even with a break in the sixth game. She broke Potapova to close out the match.
“I think I started playing a little bit smarter, getting a little bit more depth on my shots,” Pegula said. “Everything got a little bit better, but she came out playing really well. I was pretty frustrated but she´s a great player.”
Qualifier Cristian Garin of Chile shocked third-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 7-6 (2) at the BNP Paribas Open for his first win over a top-five player in nearly two years.
Garin, ranked No. 97, had 39 winners while Ruud, ranked No. 4, managed just 15 winners against 29 unforced errors in a match that lasted 1 hour, 59 minutes.
“Casper is one of the players that I really admire,” Garin said. “I´m so happy to be playing like that, being aggressive, going to the net. That´s the way that I like to play and the only way that I have to beat these kinds of players.”
The 26-year-old Garin improved to 3-1 lifetime against Ruud, a two-time Grand Slam finallist, since they first met on tour in 2019 at Sao Paulo, Brazil. Garin moves into the round of 16 to face No. 23 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who beat 13th-seeded Karen Khachanov 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Cameron Norrie, the 2021 Indian Wells champion, rallied from a set and 3-0 down to defeat world No. 103 Taro Daniel 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2.
Germany´s Alexander Zverev, who missed the second half of the 2022 season after tearing three ligaments in his right ankle at the French Open, beat Finland´s Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5, 1-6, 7-5.
He moves on to face fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who defeated Ilya Ivashka 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Medvedev, the former world No 1, who once again complained about the slow court conditions telling the chair umpire that “This is not hardcourts”, has now won 16 matches in a row, all on hardcourts, having won titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai before the Indian Wells tournament.
“(It’s) tough to make anything during the rallies, so just have to kind of see who puts more balls in court” Medvedev said. “If you lose a little momentum you lose a set.”
“I missed less at the end”, the Russian added. “That’s the only thing you can do. You cannot do more. It was a matter of a few points. Second and third sets for me they were kind of the same, the score is completely different. It’s just who plays better the most important points — break points, 30-all. I managed to do better in the third set.”
