Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, while French Open champion Garbine Muguruza survived a fright to reach the fourth round of the women’s singles in Indian Wells, California.
Sixth seeds Chan and Hingis defeated Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-1, 7-5 in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved five of seven break points and converted five of 10 to advance to a quarter-final against fourth seeds Sania Mirza of India and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
In the singles, Muguruza got a fright from Kayla Day, but outlasted the precocious American teenager 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the fourth round.
Day took the first set from the seventh seed and had two break points at 5-5 in the second, but the 17-year-old was unable to hammer home her advantage.
Muguruza used her experience to get out of trouble, eventually setting up a meeting with Ukrainian 10th seed Elina Svitolina under a relentless sun at Indian Wells.
“I started a bit off,” the 23-year-old Spaniard said. “My shots weren’t there. The experience of keeping calm and fighting helped — it’s no secret. I think I’m improving in general a lot of things, but I know that maybe two years ago this match I wouldn’t turn it around. I think that’s experience.”
Muguruza was impressed with Day, the US Open junior singles champion.
“She reminds me a little of me, when I was super-motivated and playing very good,” she said.
Day hoped to learn from her defeat.
“I was pretty upset after my match, because it didn’t go the way I wanted it in the end, but if you look at the big picture, I was able to push a top-10 player really far,” Day said.
On a day when three matches went to third-set tiebreaks, there ultimately were no big upsets, with Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova, Slovakian fifth seed Dominica Cibulkova and Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetzkova also advancing.
In the men’s singles, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal remained on course for another showdown after winning their opening matches.
Less than two months after Federer claimed an 18th major title in a classic Australian Open final, the two great rivals could meet again, this time in the fourth round.
Both won in style, with Spanish fifth seed Nadal pouncing on Guido Pella’s serve to break the Argentine five times en route to a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Federer enjoyed the relative cool of an evening match, but was back in the locker room before working up a major sweat, easing to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Frenchman Stephane Robert.
“The beginning was difficult, just because I’ve never played him before so I’m not sure about his patterns,” ninth seed Federer said. “I was very happy I was able to loosen up and play good tennis. I started to serve really well, move around the court great.”
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