Iga Swiatek avenged her Australian Open ouster at the hands of Linda Noskova, beating the Czech teenager 6-4, 6-0 in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. (More Tennis News)
Second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and third-seeded Jannik Sinner each advanced in straight sets in the men's draw, but fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev lost to No. 32 seed Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-4.
Swiatek advanced to the round of 16, where the top-ranked Polish star will face Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. Putintseva beat Madison Keys 6-4, 6-1, part of a tough day for American singles players.
Francis Tiafoe lost 6-3, 6-3 to Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Katie Volynets was eliminated by Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. The final American on the court, Ben Shelton, did manage a pulsating 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 victory over Francisco Cerundolo. Shelton won the decisive tiebreaker 7-5.
The 16th-seeded Shelton advanced to face Sinner in the round of 16. The 11th-seeded Tsitsipas will face Lehecka.
Noskova beat Swiatek in three sets in Australia, becoming the first teen to beat a No. 1-ranked woman at that event in 25 years. The rematch was competitive for a set, but Swiatek eventually rolled to victory in just under 73 minutes.
“I made some mistakes at the beginning. I tried to maybe play to finish the rallies too early,” Swiatek said. “But I knew that if I'm going to try to stay consistent and make a little bit less mistakes, my chances may come.”
Jasmine Paolini won another tight match against Anna Kalinskaya, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Paolini won the Dubai Championships two weeks ago, rallying to win a three-set final over Kalinskaya.
Alcaraz beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-3, and Sinner ousted Jan Lennard-Struff 6-3, 6-4.
“I love playing here. I think it's called the fifth Grand Slam, and I know why,” Alcaraz said. “I mean, the site is amazing, the courts. I mean, I feel here so peaceful that I think that tennis players, we are going to every tournament and we try to find, you know, that peace off the court, to feel calm, you know, and we find it here.”
Alcaraz advances to face Fabian Marozsan, the Hungarian who beat him as a 135th-ranked qualifier at the Italian Open 10 months ago.
“After that match I really wanted to rematch that match against him,” Alcaraz said. “I mean, he's playing great tennis. He is beating big guys. ... Yeah, I'm really looking forward to playing against him again.”
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula edged Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-5, 6-3 in an all-American doubles matchup. The top-seeded men's doubles team is out after the first round — Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen eliminated Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 7-6, 4-6, 10-8.
