Spain’s Paula Badosa on Tuesday kept her BNP Paribas Open title defense on track, holding off determined Canadian Leylah Fernandez to reach the quarter-finals in the California desert.
Badosa, seeded fifth, saved five of the six break points she faced and kept last year’s US Open runner-up under pressure — converting three of her 12 break chances.
“Today was very tough,” said Badosa, who lifted the trophy in October last year in a tournament moved from its usual March date because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: AFP
“Leylah is an amazing player, very fast and good timing. I knew I had to fight and serve very well. I think I did that the entire match,” she said.
Badosa is vying to become the first woman to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles since Martina Navratilova in the 1990-1991 seasons.
She gained the upper hand in the second set with a break for 3-2, then saved a pair of break points in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead.
“In the important moments, like 4-3, down the break points, I think I stayed very composed,” added Badosa, who next faces Veronica Kudermetova, a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 winner over Marketa Vondrousova.
World No. 4 Iga Swiatek, the highest-ranked player remaining in the women’s field, rallied from a set down for a third straight match to book her quarter-final berth, beating German veteran Angelique Kerber 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, is coming off a title in Doha last month, but the 20-year-old said that it took her a while to figure out how to tackle Kerber — another former Grand Slam champion.
MEN’S SINGLES
In the men’s tournament, sixth-ranked Matteo Berrettini shook off mid-match doldrums to defeat South Africa’s Lloyd Harris 6-4, 7-5 to reach the fourth round, while world No. 7 Andrey Rublev powered past Frances Tiafoe of the US.
The 25-year-old Italian Berrettini, winner of five ATP titles, but seeking his first Masters 1000 crown, is the second-highest ranked man left in the draw behind fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal.
However, he said he would need to do better after a win in which he trailed 4-1 in the second set.
“I got a little bit nervous,” he said. “I didn’t like how I handled the start of the second set. I let the anger out a little bit, which helped.”
A dozen aces also helped as Berrettini won five straight games to secure the victory.
Rublev, who has captured titles in Marseille and Dubai this year, pushed his ATP winning streak to 11 matches with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Tiafoe.
John Isner of the US powered past Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3. Isner, who towered over his opponent by 38cm, fired 13 aces and did not face a break point.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures