Monday, March 16, 2015

Radwanska, Wawrinka lead exodus from BNP

Heather Watson, shown in 2012, shocked No. 7
seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round
at Indian Wells. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Four top-10 seeds -- three women and one man -- lost on Sunday in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
   Ousted in the third round of the women's draw were No. 7 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and No. 10 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. Falling in the second round on the men's side was No. 7 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
   Heather Watson of Great Britain upset Radwanska, last year's runner-up to Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-4. Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland bounced Makarova 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, and Elina Svitolina of Ukraine took out Safarova 7-6 (5), 7-5.
  Both Watson and Radwanska have had success in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. Watson won the 2012 doubles title with Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, and Radwanska reached the 2013 singles final before losing to Dominika Cibulkova.
   Bacsinszky extended her winning streak to 14 matches, including titles in Monterrey and Acapulco.
   Robin Haase of the Netherlands surprised Wawrinka 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
   Top-ranked Serena Williams, returning to Indian Wells after a 14-year absence, breezed past 28th-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-0 in 53 minutes. 
   Williams will meet fellow American Sloane Stephens in the round of 16. Williams leads the head-to-head series 2-1, losing in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Australian Open.
   Second-seeded Roger Federer, meanwhile, set up a rematch with Andreas Seppi after falling to the Italian in the third round of the Australian Open in January.
   Eleventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, 23, of Bulgaria edged Nick Kyrgios, 19, of Australia 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-6 (4) in 2 hours, 10 minutes in the first meeting between the potential Grand Slam singles champions. 
   Also advancing to the third round were Americans Donald Young, Steve Johnson and Jack Sock.
   In men's doubles, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan outclassed Kevin Anderson of South Africa and Jurgen Melzer of Austria.
   The 36-year-old Bryan twins, former NCAA doubles from Stanford, seek their third straight Indian Wells title. They grew up a two-hour drive away in Camarillo in the Los Angeles area.

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