New slam champion Keys returns to Tour with win in Indian Wells

American Madison Keys picked up where she left off at the Australian Open as she cruised into the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Saturday by beating Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-0.

In her first outing since she won her first Grand Slam title in Melbourne in January, Keys showed no sign of rust as she wrapped up a confident victory in 63 minutes. The No 5 seed will play the winner of the match between Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 28 seed, and Australian qualifier Kimberly Birrell next.

“Australia was obviously amazing, but it’s nice to play my first match back here, at home,” said Keys, who stretched her unbeaten start to the year to 13 matches.

“She’s always really tough because she can hit so hard. I knew I needed to keep the ball away from her, and I think I did a good job of that. Just happy to have a chance to play another match here.”

Potapova, ranked No 34, edged out Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5) in the previous round of the Indian Wells tournament.

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

• Emma Navarro vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. McCartney Kessler
• Alycia Parks vs. Diana Shnaider
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Jaqueline Cristian
• Catherine McNally vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Amanda Anisimova vs. Belinda Bencic
• Elise Mertens vs. Kimberly Birrell
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Sofia Kenin
• Coco Gauff vs. Moyuka Uchijima
• Sonay Kartal vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Elina Avanesyan vs. Donna Vekic
• Iva Jovic vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Viktoriya Tomova vs. Maria Sakkari: saturday
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Polina Kudermetova: saturday
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Magdalena Frech: saturday
• Qinwen Zheng (8) beat Victoria Azarenka: 6-3, 6-4
• Danielle Collins (14) beat Hailey Baptiste (Q): 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
• Mirra Andreeva (9) beat Varvara Gracheva: 7-5, 6-4
• Elina Svitolina (23) beat Ashlyn Krueger: 6-1, 6-7 (8), 6-3
• Jessica Pegula (4) beat Magda Linette: 6-4, 6-2
• Xinyu Wang beat Jelena Ostapenko (26): 6-4, 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (2) beat Caroline Garcia: 6-2, 6-0
• Caroline Dolehide (WC) beat Eva Lys (LL): 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Lulu Sun beat Linda Noskova (31): 6-1, 6-4
• Dayana Yastremska beat Ons Jabeur (32): 6-3, 6-1
• Clara Tauson (22) beat Camila Osorio: 7-6 (3), 7-5
• Katerina Siniakova beat Yulia Putintseva (21): 6-2, 6-2
• Karolina Muchova (15) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-4, 6-3
• Marta Kostyuk (18) beat Robin Montgomery (WC): 6-1, 6-3
• Katie Boulter (25) beat Irina-Camelia Begu: 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-0
• Elena Rybakina (7) beat Suzan Lamens: 6-3, 6-3