INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA - World No.51 Petra Martic snapped a six-match losing streak against Top 10 players to upset No.6 seed Jelena Ostapenko at the BNP Paribas Open, moving into the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
The Croatian No.1's last win against a Top 10 player came against then-World No.5 Petra Kvitova at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in the fall of 2012, and she had won just one set in her last six matches against the world's elite.
However, that all changed in Palm Springs on Sunday afternoon, as she was in largely control for the duration of the one hour, 19-minute encounter against the French Open champion and World No.6 on Stadium 4.
Martic broke serve five times and utilized her variety to grind down the 20-year-old Latvian over the course of the match, advancing into the fourth round in Indian Wells for the first time in her career.
"She's a very aggressive player and sometimes, she hits some winners or hits some unforced errors," Martic said after the match. "You have to expect the game is going to be changing. Sometimes, she's going to be dominating and sometimes it's going to look like I'm dominating.
"I just tried to keep her out of her rhythm, out of her comfort zone as long as I could, and I managed to do that throughout the match."
In the last 16, the Croatian will face 18-year-old Czech Marketa Vondrousova, who prevailed in a battle of teenagers against 19-year-old Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, 6-2, 6-2, to begin Sunday's play.
"I played her two months ago in Auckland in the first tournament of the season," Martic assessed. "She's a young, upcoming player who's playing some good tennis here, and I'm sure it's going to be another tough match for me.
"I'm really enjoying and my body is finally feeling good. I'm really just grateful to be back on court, be pain free and do what I love, and I think you see that in my results."
