Indian Wells: Swiatek into third round, losing only one game to Liu

Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed and defending champion, moved into the third round of the Indian Wells by defeating American Claire Liu 6-0, 6-1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Saturday.

Swiatek, ranked No 1, improved to 13-3 for the season, with all of those 13 victories coming in straight sets. Her 6-0 win in the first set was also the sixth time that the Pole has dished out a bagel in 2023 to one of her opponents.

“Coming back after such a great result last year is something else,” Swiatek said during her on-court interview. “I wanted to get my level of energy up a little bit, because it’s the hardest thing to do when everything goes your way.

The Pole, who is now 2-0 lifetime against Liu, will play Canadian Bianca Andreescu, the No 32 seed, next. Swiatek won the only clash between her and Andreescu in straight sets in Rome on clay last year.

Liu, ranked No 56, won against Slovak lucky loser Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (7-6 (5), 6-3) in the previous round of the Indian Wells tournament.

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other second-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Sorana Cirstea vs. Madison Keys
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Paula Badosa
• Ons Jabeur vs. Magdalena Frech
• Peyton Stearns vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Elena Rybakina vs. Sofia Kenin
• Tatjana Maria vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Martina Trevisan vs. Madison Brengle
• Dalma Galfi vs. Caroline Garcia
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Emma Navarro: saturday
• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Bernarda Pera: saturday
• Katerina Siniakova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia: saturday
• 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