If the head-to-head was any indication, Friday's second-round clash at the BNP Paribas Open between Simona Halep and Ekaterina Alexandrova was sure to be competitive.
It certainly was, and the former World No.1 answered the call. Halep, the No.24 seed and 2015 Indian Wells champion, battled past Alexandrova in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 victory, breaking a 2-2 head-to-head tie between the pair.
Three of their previous meetings came on hard courts, and Alexandrova had won two of the three, with Halep's win in Cincinnati three years ago also going three sets.
In the 1 hour, 47-minute clash on Stadium 3, the serve of both players was the story. In all, Alexandrova was broken six times in the match — three times in each set Halep won — but never lost serve in the middle to force a decider. Double break leads of 3-0 in the opener and 4-1 in the decider proved enough of a cushion for Halep to advance to the third round for the ninth time in 11 career appearances.
Despite hitting nearly twice Halep's total of winners (25 to 14), Alexandrova also racked up nearly three times her total of errors (47 to 16). She also served 14 double faults and landed less than 50% of her first serves in the match.
Halep will next play the winner of an all-American clash between No.16 seed Coco Gauff and wildcard Claire Liu.
Siwatek stumbles in set one, but soars past Kalinina
The highest seed remaining in the top half of the BNP Paribas Open draw following the pre-tournament withdrawal of Barbora Krejcikova, Iga Swiatek, too, was a set away from being bundled out of the tournament.
After dropping an opening set to Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina that saw seven combined service breaks, the No.3 seed reset and rallied with aplomb: she lost just one game the rest of the way to advance to the third round, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.
"I think at the beginning, I was too focused on the conditions. I was a little bit distracted by what was going on with the wind ... I had to find my rhythm, and in the second set, I did that," Swiatek said on-court after the match.
"I'm pretty happy that I could turn my hat on to 'fight mode' and really stay focused, because that was the key."
Three sets needed for the No.3 seed 💪@iga_swiatek secures the win over Kalinina, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.#IndianWells pic.twitter.com/XNUNwqnD8g
— wta (@WTA) March 11, 2022
Swiatek was unable to turn leads of 3-1 and 4-2 into a one-set lead, as Kalinina won five of the last six games to steal the opener. However, the World No.50's serve remained under pressure in the next two sets, and Swiatek
The early stages of the second set proved the most competitive, as Swiatek was forced to save five break points in her first two service games. Kalinina had two chances to break in the first game to extend her lead, and later, three chances to get back on serve at 2-0.
Highlights: Swiatek def. Kalinina
Swiatek, who reached the fourth round in Indian Wells last year in her tournament main-draw debut, next faces either No.29 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark or Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Kovinic beats Pliskova in latter's season debut
An arm injury delayed the start to Karolina Pliskova's season, and a determined comeback from Danka Kovinic denied her a win in her season debut. From 6-2, 5-2 down, the Montenegrin rallied for a spot in the third round, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
The victory over World No.8 Pliskova is Kovinic's third in her career over a Top 10 player, and first on a surface other than clay.
Forced out of the Australian swing and Middle East tournaments due to an injury sustained in pre-season training that laid her up in a cast, Pliskova never reached match point in her quest to make a winning return to competition.
She was broken to 30 when she served for the match at 6-2, 5-3 and lost the last four games of the second set. Despite losing a 3-1 lead early in the third, and failing to break from 0-40 at 3-3, Kovinic also won the last three games of the match.
