Anisimova overcomes Blinkova, sets up Raducanu clash at Indian Wells

Sixth-seeded Amanda Anisimova rallied from a set down to defeat Anna Blinkova and advance to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Friday night. The American, aiming to reach her first final this season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, will next face Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu for a place in the round of 16.

Blinkova, ranked No. 94 in the world, won a topsy-turvy first set 7-5 that featured seven breaks of serve. Anisimova recovered to storm through the next two sets, winning the final nine games of the match to close out a 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 victory in one hour, 39 minutes.

While both players landed a similar percentage of first serves (68.4% for Anisimova and 67.6% for Blinkova), the American won a higher percentage of points on both her first and second serves. Anisimova won 69.2% of her first-serve points and 41.7% of her second-serve points, compared with 52.1% and 17.4% for Blinkova.

The win snapped a three-match losing streak for Anisimova at this event and improved her head-to-head record against Blinkova to 2-0.

Anisimova is playing in the Indian Wells main draw for the seventh time. Her best result came in her debut appearance in 2018, when she reached the round of 16 before losing to Karolina Pliskova.

To match that result this year, she will need to defeat Raducanu in the next round. The Brit earlier recorded a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over Anastasia Zakharova in another second-round match on Friday.

Raducanu holds a 2-1 edge over Anisimova in their career meetings, all of which came in 2025 on hard courts. The Brit won their second-round match at the Australian Open and their fourth-round clash in Miami Open, while Anisimova won their most recent meeting - a round-of-32 match in Montreal.