Sabalenka Advances to Indian Wells Quarter-Finals
World number one Aryna Sabalenka secured a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Naomi Osaka to advance to the quarter-finals at Indian Wells. This marked their first meeting since 2018, when Osaka defeated Sabalenka en route to winning the US Open.
Sabalenka, 27, demonstrated superior form against the 16th seed, concluding the match in 80 minutes.
"It's crazy, for so many years we only played once I'm pretty sure we are playing many more matches she's coming back playing great tennis," Sabalenka said. "I'm pretty happy for the result - much better than last time."
Osaka, who returned to competition after a 14-month hiatus following the birth of her daughter Shai in July 2023, started the match with a confident service game. However, Sabalenka quickly found her rhythm, breaking Osaka's serve to take a 2-1 lead.
The Belarusian increased her dominance with a series of powerful backhands, moving ahead 5-2, and then served out the first set with an ace.
In the second set, both players held serve initially, but Sabalenka broke at 4-2 and then served out the match.
"I'm happy that I put so much pressure on her today, that I brought variety to the court," Sabalenka added. "My serve worked well. On the return I played really great tennis. Happy with my performance for sure."
Sabalenka, who was the runner-up at Indian Wells last year, will next face either Canada's Victoria Mboko or the United States' Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals.
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