Newsletter

Muguruza falls at its premiere in Indian Wells; Medvedev and Schwartzman advance

AFP

Updated:10/10/2021 05:22h

Keep

The Hispanic-Venezuelan tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza was eliminated on Saturday at its premiere in Indian Wells by the Australian Ajla Tomljanovic while the Russian Daniil Medvedev, first seed in the men’s category, and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman solved their crosses.

The fall of Muguruza, number six in the world ranking, is a new surprise in the women’s branch of the tournament, in the WTA 1000 category, after the defeat on Friday of the young British Emma Raducanu, the new winner of the United States Open.

Tomljanovic, number 47 in the WTA ranking, beat the former world number one by 6-3, 1-6 and 6-3 in one hour and 53 minutes of play.

Muguruza, with two Grand Slam titles in his record, arrived in Indian Wells (California) with the momentum of his triumph on Sunday in the Chicago tournament, WTA 500 category. Fifth seed in the draw, Muguruza was outmatched in the first round by Tomljanovic’s dynamic tennis but managed to rebuild quickly to take the second set with a resounding 6-1.

In the decisive round, the Caracas-born tennis player recovered from a 3-1 deficit but Tomljanovic broke her serve again to seal the unexpected victory.

With the early exits of Muguruza and Raducanu, who was eliminated by Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich (100th in the world ranking), the arc of candidates for the trophy opens even more female in Indian Wells.

The competition had already started with the absences of the first two of the world ranking, the Australian Ashleigh Barty and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, as well as the former Japanese world number one Naomi Osaka.

The first seed of the tournament, Czech Karolina Pliskova, defeated Polish Magdalena Frech 7-5 6-2 on Saturday and Spanish Paula Badosa defeated Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 2-6 and 6-2.

In the men’s division of Indian Wells, Masters 1000 category, Daniil Medvedev had a great debut when he defeated American Mackenzie McDonald in two sets.

Medvedev, who achieved his first Grand Slam title at the past United States Open, won over McDonald, number 57 of the ATP, by 6-4 and 6-2.

The 25-year-old Russian is the big favorite to lift his first Indian Wells trophy in the absence of world number one Novak Djokovic.

His next rival will be the American Marcos Giron or the Serbian Filip Krajinovic. In his turn, the Argentine Diego Schwartzman suffered to beat the American Maxime Cressy, who came from the previous phase.

Schwartzman, number 15 in the ATP ranking, beat Cressy, number 145, by 6-2, 3-6 and 7-5. Without displaying his best tennis, El Peque ‘made a show of mental strength in the third set, when he found himself behind 5-4 and had to lift two match points from Cressy.

The 29-year-old Argentine continues in the fight for his fifth ATP title and second this year after Buenos Aires in March.

In the next round, Schwartzman will face Britain’s Daniel Evans, number 22 in the ATP. He is also Argentine Guido Pella did not have the same luck since he succumbed 7-5 and 6-3 against the Spanish Roberto Bautista.

Two other Spaniards, Alejandro Davidovich and Roberto Carballés, were eliminated by the South African Lloyd Harris (6-3 and 6-3) and the Norwegian Casper Ruud (6-1 and 6-2) respectively.

See them
comments

.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending