Tennis fans in the Southern California desert got their first taste of the tournament's top seeds, with second-round action getting underway at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Friday.
World No.100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich ended Emma Raducanu's 10-match winning streak, defeating the reigning US Open champion 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in 1h 25min. Sasnovich will face 2015 champion Simona Halep for a spot in the Round of 16 on Sunday.
Elsewhere, making her main draw debut, US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez defeated Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the third round, where she will face No.9 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Earlier, No.7 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic moved into the third round of the BNP Paribas Open for the seventh time in her career with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands.
Kvitova will next face No.27 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, in an intriguing face-off between two-time Grand Slam champions. Kvitova leads the head-to-head 5-3.
( With inputs from ANI )
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