Indian Wells: Wimbledon champ Rybakina scores close win over Kenin to reach third round

Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, the No 10 seed, needed two close tiebreaks to beat American wildcard Sofia Kenin 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) and advance to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Saturday.

Rybakina, ranked No 10 in the world, will play the winner of the match between Nuria Parrizas Diaz and No 21 seed Paula Badosa next.

Rybakina said she has her eyes set on the big tournaments and knows she has to work hard for the same. “I try to enjoy every match I play. Today was a bit difficult because of the conditions. Of course, the big goal is to play really well in these big tournaments. Here for example (Indian Wells) & all the Grand Slams. My goals are high so I need to work a lot.”

Kenin, ranked No 170 in the world and a former Australian Open champion, had defeated Sloane Stephens (6-4, 6-1) in the first round of the Indian Wells tournament.

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other second-round matches (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8,800,000):

• Daria Kasatkina (8) beat Tatjana Maria: 6-2, 6-1
• Caroline Garcia (5) beat Dalma Galfi (LL): 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-4
• Leylah Fernandez (30) beat Emma Navarro (WC): 6-2, 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Claire Liu: 6-0, 6-1
• Bernarda Pera beat Liudmila Samsonova (12): 2-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (6)
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (13) beat Katerina Siniakova: 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Varvara Gracheva (Q) beat Petra Martic (25): 6-3, 6-2
• Karolina Muchova beat Victoria Azarenka (14): 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Marie Bouzkova (28): 6-1, 6-1
• Emma Raducanu beat Magda Linette (20): 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Linda Noskova beat Amanda Anisimova (31): 7-6 (6), 6-3
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Camila Giorgi: 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
• Karolina Pliskova (17) beat Anna Kalinskaya: 2-6, 6-0, 6-4
• Xinyu Wang beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (18): 6-2, 6-3
• Coco Gauff (6) beat Cristina Bucsa (Q): 6-2, 6-4
• Maria Sakkari (7) beat Shelby Rogers: 2-6, 6-4, 6-0
• Rebecca Peterson beat Shuai Zhang (22): 3-0 ret.
• Anastasia Potapova (26) beat Xiyu Wang: 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Petra Kvitova (15) beat Elizabeth Mandlik (WC): 6-1, 7-5
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Evgeniya Rodina: 6-2, 6-0
• Barbora Krejcikova (16) beat Dayana Yastremska (WC): 6-1, 6-2
• Veronika Kudermetova (11) beat Anna Blinkova: 6-3, 6-4
• Lesia Tsurenko (Q) beat Donna Vekic (29): 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
• Jil Teichmann beat Belinda Bencic (9): 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Jelena Ostapenko (24) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
• Anhelina Kalinina (27) beat Linda Fruhvirtova: 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Madison Keys
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Paula Badosa
• Ons Jabeur vs. Magdalena Frech
• Peyton Stearns vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Martina Trevisan vs. Madison Brengle