Wednesday’s play at Indian Wells featured first-round matches from the top of the WTA draw, a pair of first-round WTA doubles matches, and the remaining 12 matches in the ATP Qualifying draw.
The day’s biggest upset came on Court-4’s first match of the day, as Andreja Klepac and Katerina Srebotnik easily punted the #5-seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-2. Certainly a nice win for a team of Olympic hopefuls from Slovenia.
Taylor Townsend’s exhausted thumping on the raquet of Vania King was an upset of sorts, as well. Taylor was playing her 9th-match in 9-days after having to endure six pre-qualifying matches and two qualifying wins just to reach the main draw. After going three with Anastasija Sevastova Tuesday, she was entirely too gassed to run-down Vania King’s variety. Taylor would fall 2-6, 3-6, but truly delivered a hell of an effort over the past week and half here in the desert.
For a complete list of Wednesday’s winners and losers, scroll down to the Day-3 Results below. Here on Stadium-2…Yulia Putintseva, Dominika Cibulkova and Nicole Gibbs delivered convincing wins to reach the second-round, while Germany’s Carina Witthoeft threw-down a remarkable win over Irina Falconi – after getting “bageled” in the first set. Tampa’s Tim Smyczek reached the main-draw with a third-set (7-5) win over 18-year-old Tommy Paul from Boca Raton…
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YULIA PUTINTSEVA. Round-1.
First, Shaui Peng. While it sucks to see the all-around two-hander struggle in the first round…it is GREAT to see the all-around two-hander struggle in the first round. Wednesday was her first singles match since retiring early at Roland Garros last year. She withdrew from the rest of the 2015 season to have back surgery, and returned to the doubles court in January at Shenzhen. She’s only played four (doubles) matches in her return to the game. Wednesday makes it five matches. We wish her all the best in rediscovering her top-form.
Now, Yulia Putintseva. While Peng did show moments of brilliance, it was unforced errors from Putintseva’s opponent that dominated the match. It can be difficult to maintain one’s own consistency under those circumstances, but Yulia was focused, steadfast, and at times creative with her shot-selection knowing Peng’s sitatuion. She made Peng run and reach, taking advantage of her current weaknesses. Yulia reached the second-round last year, as well – falling to Ana Ivanovic 3-6, 1-6.
NEXT UP: Kristina Mladenovic on Friday. The two have played three times. Mladenovic won two of those matches, including their most recent encounter two years ago in Limoges, France 6-2, 7-6(5).
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CARINA WITTHOEFT. Round-1.
Germany’s Carina Witthoeft was completely absent from Wednesday’s first-set with Irina Falconi. In 23-minutes, she was down a set and hadn’t even won a game. Falconi was rolling. Down 0-1 in the second, Carina finally earned her first game on a break. She’d break again to go up 5-3, then serve for the set. Falconi came alive, saved two set points, and broke to get back on serve; but her cage was already rattled. Serving to stay in the set, Falconi double faulted on set-point leading the way to a decider. In the third, the two traded breaks early, then again half-way through; but Witthoeft stole it on her sixth break of the match, winning 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Needless to say, a bizarre Indian Wells debut for Witthoeft – but hopefully a confidence-boosting turn-around that will help her moving forward.
NEXT UP: Jelena Jankovic. The two have never played before. Jelena comes into Indian Wells after falling early in both Dubai and Doha and dropping both of her Fed Cup matches a month ago. She only has four first-round wins this year.
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TIM SMYCZEK. Qualifying. Round-1.
In Stadium-2’s qualifying match, Tim Smyczek fell-behind early to 18-year-old Tommy Paul, down a set in just 34-minutes. Tim then delivered the second and jumped ahead two breaks in the third. Tommy would earn back both, leveling the decider at 5-all; but Tim played error-free to win the next two games and earn his place in the main draw. This is Tim’s seventh trip to the desert, and whether he’s played qualies or not, he’s never missed the main draw…
NEXT UP: …and then, he drew wild card Juan Martin del Potro. They’ll play Thursday in Stadium-1’s prime-time match. If anywhere you want home fans on your side, it’s here at Indian Wells. Playing del Potro in Round-1 guarantees Tim will have to be the spoiler. Delpo was a finalist here three years ago in his last appearance at Indian Wells, before wrist surgery sidelined his career again. Last month, in Delpo’s return to the game, he reached the Delray Beach Semifinals. Tim and Juan have never played before.
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DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA. Round-1.
Katerina Siniakova played great tennis through qualifying, but struggled to piece anything together against a dominant Dominka Cibulkova on Wednensday. Dominka brushed the 19-year-old Czech aside in under an hour 6-2, 6-0. In her 8th trip to the desert, Dominka is excited to be back after missing last year with the Achilles injury. She said based on her play, obviously she’s much improved and feeling confident moving forward. She’ll need it…
NEXT UP: World #3 Agnieszka Radwanska. They’ve played nine time before, rarely this early in the draw. Agnieszka has won six of those matches, most recently in the Tokyo Semifinals last September.
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NICOLE GIBBS. Round-1.
Alexandra Dulgheru struggled from ball-up in Stadium-2’s final match Wednesday night, paving the way for Nicole Gibbs to reach the second round, in only her second Indian Wells appearance. Wednesday night’s 6-1, 6-0 win was redemption for the thumping Gibbs endured on Dulgheru’s raquet last May at Roland Garros.
NEXT UP: After winning two tough qualifying matches, the easy win was a nice reprieve for Gibbs knowing she’ll face fellow-American Madison Keys in the second-round. Oddly enough, though good friends, the two have never faced each other on the WTA Tour.
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RESULTS. BNP Paribas Open 2016. Day Three. Round-1 WTA Singles.
- [Q] L. Siegemund (GER) d I. Begu (ROU) 36 64 64
- Y. Putintseva (KAZ) d S. Peng (CHN) 60 61
- [Q] K. Bondarenko (UKR) d A. Van Uytvanck (BEL) 62 67(2) 62
- L. Tsurenko (UKR) d T. Babos (HUN) 75 64
- [Q] K. Nara (JPN) d T. Pereira (BRA) 61 62
- B. Strycova (CZE) d [Q] A. Sasnovich (BLR) 61 63
- L. Hradecka (CZE) d [WC] A. Riske (USA) 76(4) 62
- V. King (USA) d [Q] T. Townsend (USA) 62 63
- D. Cibulkova (SVK) d [Q] K. Siniakova (CZE) 62 60
- [WC] H. Watson (GBR) d G. Voskoboeva (KAZ) 76(4) 46 61
- C. Witthoeft (GER) d I. Falconi (USA) 06 64 64
- C. Vandeweghe (USA) d [Q] K. Bertens (NED) 64 64
- Y. Shvedova (KAZ) d [Q] Kr. Pliskova (CZE) 63 67(3) 75
- [Q] N. Gibbs (USA) d A. Dulgheru (ROU) 61 60
- J. Larsson (SWE) d T. Maria (GER) 64 76(3)
- D. Kovinic (MNE) d [WC] S. Crawford (USA) 63 64
RESULTS. BNP Paribas Open 2016. Day Three. Round-1 WTA Doubles.
- A. Klepac (SLO) / K. Srebotnik (SLO) d [5] E. Makarova (RUS) / L. Safarova (CZE) 61 62
- M. Gasparyan (RUS) / M. Niculescu (ROU) d C. Chuang (TPE) / C. Liang (CHN) 64 61
RESULTS. BNP Paribas Open 2016. Day Three. Round-2 ATP Qualifying Singles.
- [17] R. Olivo (ARG) d [1] Y. Sugita (JPN) 64 62
- [16] V. Millot (FRA) d [2] A. Krajicek (USA) 63 64
- [3] P. Herbert (FRA) d [14] M. Zverev (GER) 63 76(3)
- [4] M. Berrer (GER) d [13] A. Rublev (RUS) 63 62
- [5] T. Smyczek (USA) d [24] T. Paul (USA) 36 63 75
- [21] M. Trungelliti (ARG) d [9] E. Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 76(4) 64
- [11] B. Fratangelo (USA) d [15] R. Stepanek (CZE) 63 62
- [23] N. Rubin (USA) d [12] D. Novikov (USA) 75 63
- [18] R. Harrison (USA) d J. Jung (TPE) 64 76(2)
- [19] A. Sarkissian (USA) d M. Krueger (USA) 57 64 64
- [20] J. Kovalik (SVK) d G. Lapentti (ECU) 75 46 64
- [PR] P. Polansky (CAN) d M. Arevalo (ESA) 36 63 62
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BNP Paribas Open 2016 – Thursday Order of Play
BNP Paribas Open 2016 – Updated WTA Singles Draw
BNP Paribas Open 2016 – Updated WTA Doubles Draw
BNP Paribas Open 2016 – Completed ATP Qualifying Singles Draw
