INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- After a near-death experience in her first outing at the BNP Paribas Open, Aryna Sabalenka sent home Emma Raducanu on Monday by the seemingly comfortable score of 6-3, 7-5.
Was it relaxing by comparison?
“Not really,” the No.2-seeded Sabalenka told reporters afterward. “I wish it would be like that -- you saved a couple of match points and you’re done until the end of the week. In this tough situation like today in the last game, I was telling myself, `Listen, you came back after such a tough score, you can handle this one.’”
Sabalenka converted on her fourth match point and advanced to Wednesday’s Round of 16 match against No.23 Emma Navarro, who was a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 winner over No.16 Elina Svitolina.
Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, is now 17-5 this season and tied for the most wins on tour. She won the title in Hobart and reached semifinals in Auckland and San Diego. She and Sabalenka have never played. A win would give the 22-year-old her first Top 5 win and second Top 10 win of her career.
The victory over Raducanu was Sabalenka’s 175th at the WTA Tour level since 2020; only World No.1 Iga Swiatek (203) has more over that span.
Sabalenka’s only complaint was a warning she received from chair umpire Cecelia Alberti for objectionable language. Sabalenka delivered it in person after the match.
“I just told her, `Come on, you could just avoid that warning. It wasn’t that bad,’ ” Sabalenka explained. “Yes, there was one specific word, but I didn’t [say it] to [my opponent].”
Sabalenka was quick to laugh about it off now. She's moving forward again in the tournament in which she reached the final a year ago.
Here’s a look at the three other fourth-round matches from the bottom half of the draw that will deliver the quarterfinalists:
No.3 Coco Gauff vs. No.24 Elise Mertens
After winning the US Open last year at the age of 19, checking off her most urgent bucket-list item, Coco Gauff recalibrated her mindset. We can happily report that the pressure is off.
“That’s probably the only time-constraint goal I ever made for myself, which probably is more pressing,” Gauff told reporters here at the BNP Paribas Open. “I think everything else is just, whenever it happens, it happens.
“I guess now looking at what’s next -- yeah, 20 is a long time to play. So I don’t have any time-constraint goals any more on myself.”
The euphoria @CocoGauff felt winning championship point at last year’s US Open—a moment that brought all of Arthur Ashe to its feet—is still indescribable. “For the rest of my life, the rest of my career,” she says, “I’m going to be chasing that high.” https://t.co/dkc6uTfnC2 pic.twitter.com/OBxCmIcrKB
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) March 6, 2024
That doesn’t mean that her ambition has cooled -- far from it. On Wednesday, her 20th birthday, Gauff launches the next chapter of her life. To set it up, she dispatched Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6 (5) while Mertens was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Naomi Osaka.
“I think almost every time I play her is a tough match,” Gauff said of Mertens. “I don’t recall any straightforward wins playing against her. Even though the record is 3-0, it could easily have been the opposite. She’s tough.”
Gauff has beaten Mertens in each of the past three seasons -- on three different surfaces – at Eastbourne, Roland Garros and the US Open. Each match -- weirdly -- involved a 6-0 set going one way or the other.
“I didn’t know that,” Gauff said, smiling. “Tennis has these stats, man.”
Said Mertens, “I think I have to work on my own game and see how far I can go instead of seeing, OK, what is she doing all the time? Of course I know a little bit how she plays already. I think the goal is just to improve myself.”
No.9 Maria Sakkari vs. Diane Parry
Parry, the lowest-ranked player left in the bottom half of the draw (No.61), defeated Anna Blinkova 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fourth round. The 21-year-old from Paris had already beaten formidable opponents Martina Trevisan and No. 29 seed Leylah Fernandez.
Sakkari, meanwhile, took out No.20 seed Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-4.
“It feels good just to get a couple of wins and comfortable wins under my belt,” Sakkari said. This is her first tournament with coach David Witt at the helm.
“Just feel like I’m getting to where I was before. Obviously, there is a long way to go. Round of 16 is not like a `wow’ result, but at the same time, I just feel like I’m doing what is right and I feel like good things are going to come.”
This is a first-time match.
No.11 Daria Kasatkina vs. Yuan Yue
Yuan has won eight straight matches, going back to her recent title in Austin, Texas. She’s the third-ranked player from China (No.49). Her biggest accomplishment here was upsetting China’s No.1 player, No.8 seed Zheng Qinwen, a finalist earlier this year at the Australian Open.
Kasatkina was a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Sloane Stephens in the third round.
They have never played.
