Indian Wells: Sabalenka saves four match points to meet Raducanu in third round

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, moved into the third round of the Indian Wells by edging out American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (6) at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday night.

“This match was really crazy, and I really think it was super high-level match. She played incredible tennis. I kept telling myself, Stay there, fight for every point. You never know what’s going to happen. Probably this is the match for crazy comeback, and I did it.”

“I’m super happy that I didn’t give up on that score, and I was really pushing myself hard, even though I didn’t play my best tennis and she was crushing it like crazy. I was just like trying to stay in the game and keep fighting for every point. But this match definitely go into the book of craziest matches and the best matches of my career.”

Sabalenka, ranked No 2, will play wildcard Emma Raducanu next.

In the previous round of the Indian Wells tournament, Stearns, ranked No 64, defeated Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (6-3, 6-2).

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Indian Wells WTA 1000, other second-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 9.258.080, most recent results first):

• Qinwen Zheng vs. Yue Yuan: sunday
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Emma Navarro: sunday
• Elina Svitolina (16) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-3, 2-6, 6-1
• Naomi Osaka beat Liudmila Samsonova (14): 7-5, 6-3
• Caroline Dolehide beat Victoria Azarenka (27): 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
• Sloane Stephens beat Sorana Cirstea (19): 6-0, 7-5
• Anna Blinkova beat Jessica Pegula (5): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
• Caroline Garcia (20) beat Viktoriya Tomova: 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
• Elise Mertens (24) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-1, 6-4
• Maria Sakkari (9) beat Diana Shnaider: 5-7, 6-4, 6-0
• Emma Raducanu beat Dayana Yastremska (30): 4-0 ret.
• Diane Parry beat Leylah Fernandez (29): 7-5, 5-7, 6-2
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Clara Burel: 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Lucia Bronzetti beat Anhelina Kalinina (32): 6-3, 6-4
• Daria Kasatkina (11) beat Oceane Dodin: 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Madison Keys (18) beat Hailey Baptiste (Q): 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4)
• Nadia Podoroska (LL) beat Kayla Day (LL): 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Linda Noskova (26) beat Camila Giorgi: 6-3, 7-5
• Anna Kalinskaya (21) beat Taylor Townsend (Q): 7-5, 3-6, 6-4
• Katie Volynets (WC) beat Ons Jabeur (6): 6-4, 6-4
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (12) beat Rebecca Sramkova (Q): 7-5, 6-2
• Anastasia Potapova (28) beat Marie Bouzkova: 7-5, 6-1
• Jasmine Paolini (13) beat Tatjana Maria: 6-3, 6-3
• Marta Kostyuk (31) beat Mai Hontama (Q): 6-4, 6-2
• Caroline Wozniacki (WC) beat Donna Vekic (25): 7-6 (5), 6-3
• Veronika Kudermetova (17) beat Nao Hibino (Q): 6-1, 7-5
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Danielle Collins: 6-3, 6-0
• Marketa Vondrousova (7) beat Bernarda Pera (Q): 6-0, 6-2
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (22) beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Angelique Kerber beat Jelena Ostapenko (10): 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
• Yulia Putintseva beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (15): 7-5, 6-1