Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Three more high women's seeds lose in Indian Wells

No. 24 seed Jelena Ostapenko ousted No. 2 seed Iga
Swiatek 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 16 in Indian Wells.
2016 photo by Paul Bauman
   One day after No. 1 seed Karolina Pliskova lost to lucky loser Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in the BNP Paribas Open, the second, third and fourth women's seeds also fell in straight sets.
   In a matchup of former French Open champions, No. 24 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia surprised No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-4, 6-3 today in the round of 16 in Indian Wells.
   No. 21 seed Paula Badosa, a quarterfinalist in this year's French Open and Tokyo Olympics, beat No. 3 seed Barbora Krejcikova, the reigning French Open champion, 6-1, 7-5.
   And No. 19 seed Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., routed No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-1, 6-1 in 68 minutes. Pegula reached the Sacramento final in 2012 at 18 and Stockton semifinals in 2018 in Northern California Challengers.
   No. 10 Angelique Kerber is the highest remaining women's seed. The three-time Grand Slam singles champion reached the final of the last (2019) BNP Paribas Open, losing to 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu, and won the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   Pegula is the highest seed left in the bottom half of the women's draw.
   In yet another women's upset, unseeded Shelby Rogers of Charleston, S.C.,  edged No. 23 seed Leylah Fernandez, the U.S. Open runner-up last month, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
   No. 18 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia dismissed Haddad Maia 6-0, 6-2 in 65 minutes.
   On the men's side, No. 31 seed Taylor Fritz of Rancho Palos Verdes in the Los Angeles area dispatched No. 5 seed Matteo Berrettini, the Wimbledon runner-up in July, 6-4, 6-3. Fritz won the Sacramento and Fairfield (Calif.) Challengers in consecutive weeks at 17 in 2015.
   In the BNP women's doubles quarterfinals, No. 3 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan beat unseeded Makoto Ninomiya of Japan and Sabrina Santamaria of Los Angeles 6-1, 7-6 (2).
   Shibahara, 23, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA.

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