Indian Wells WTA: Azarenka sees off teen qualifier Ngounoue

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka advanced to the second round of the Indian Wells WTA 1000 by winning against American qualifier Clervie Ngounoue 6-4, 7-6 (7) in California on Wednesday.

Ngounoue, the 2023 Wimbledon Girls champion, was playing in her first WTA 1000 main draw.

Azarenka, ranked No 35, will face No 8 seed Qinwen Zheng next.

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other first-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.963.700, most recent results first):

• Alycia Parks vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Anna Blinkova vs. McCartney Kessler
• Lauren Davis vs. Elina Avanesyan
• Jessica Bouzas Maneiro vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Viktorija Golubic vs. Kimberly Birrell
• Iva Jovic vs. Julia Grabher
• Belinda Bencic vs. Tatjana Maria
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Jaqueline Cristian
• Sonay Kartal vs. Varvara Lepchenko
• Emma Raducanu vs. Moyuka Uchijima
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Maya Joint
• Olga Danilovic vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Catherine McNally
• Maddison Inglis vs. Sofia Kenin
• Claire Liu vs. Polina Kudermetova
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Lucia Bronzetti
• Dayana Yastremska vs. Yue Yuan
• Ashlyn Krueger vs. Katie Volynets
• Jule Niemeier vs. Robin Montgomery: thursday
• Camila Osorio vs. Naomi Osaka: thursday
• Katerina Siniakova beat Maria Lourdes Carle (Q): 6-2, 6-1
• Caroline Dolehide (WC) beat Kamilla Rakhimova: 6-2, 7-6 (3)
• Xinyu Wang beat Mayar Sherif: 6-4, 7-5
• Magda Linette beat Peyton Stearns: 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
• Suzan Lamens beat Marie Bouzkova: 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Hailey Baptiste (Q) beat Whitney Osuigwe (Q): 6-1, 6-2
• Irina-Camelia Begu beat Ann Li: 7-5, 3-6, 6-1
• Caroline Garcia beat Bernarda Pera (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Renata Zarazua: 6-4, 1-0 ret.
• Lulu Sun beat Rebecca Sramkova: 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (2)
• Varvara Gracheva beat Petra Kvitova (WC): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4