Indian Wells: World number one and defending champion Naomi Osaka powered past American Danielle Collins 6-4, 6-2 on Monday to book a fourth-round meeting with resurgent Swiss Belinda Bencic at Indian Wells. Japan’s Osaka, whose second straight Grand Slam title at the Australian Open propelled her to the top of the rankings, traded breaks with Collins early in the first set.
But she got the decisive break in the ninth game, giving herself a break point with a backhand winner before pouncing on a short ball and belting a forehand winner to give herself a chance to serve for the set. An increasingly confident Osaka broke Collins at love for a 2-1 lead in the second.Collins, trying to build on a breakout run to the Australian Open semi-finals, failed in her bid to avenge her 6-1, 6-0 loss to Osaka in their only prior meeting in Beijing last year.
And Osaka, whose first career title came at this prestigious WTA premier mandatory event last year, advanced to a meeting with Bencic, the 23rd seed who defeated Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2. She’ll fight for a quarter-final berth against Mona Barthel, a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 winner over Julia Goerges in an all-German contest. Fifth-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova registered a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure.
Ivo Karlovic halts Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Indian Wells: Prajnesh Gunneswaran’s terrific run at the Indian Wells Masters came to an end following a straight set defeat against big-serving Ivo Karlovic even as the left-handed Indian is confident of replicating success at the big stage consistently. The Indian qualifier fought hard before losing 3-6 6-7(4) to the tall Croat, who fired 16 aces in the one hour and 13-minute contest. Meanwhile, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his partner Denis Shapovalov bowed out of the doubles after a 6-4 1-6 8-10 defeat against Novak Djokovic and Fabio Fognini in the second round.
