Indian Wells, California, March 15 (BNA): Greek Maria Sakkari hit five aces to ease over Czech Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-0 in the third round of Indian Wells on Monday.
The world number six won all first serve points in the first set and lost just one in the second, as Kvitova struggled with her serve, leading to five double faults within 66 minutes in California, Reuters reports.
Twice Wimbledon winner Kvitova gave up a break point in the eighth game of the first set and never regained her composure, as Scari blocked the break twice to lock the tire and ran into the match in the second set.
“It was hard for me to get used to her serve,” said Scary, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros and the US Open last year.
“Once I broke it, I felt like it was the right way to replay it and I was pretty solid in the back of the court.
This is the second time that Scary has reached the round of 16 in the unofficial “Fifth Major” tennis tournament, having reached the fourth round in 2018.
Later in the day, two-time winner and 13th seed Victoria Azarenka fell to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 6-3 6-4 after a broken serve that left her eight double faults.
A brilliant Rybakina produced the original first set, firing four aces without dropping a single serve point to gain early momentum.
With her right shoulder tightly tied and a sleeve placed on her right arm, two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka kneeled on the court and cried after a double fault in the fifth game of the second set. This prompted the presiding judge to approach Azarenka to ask her if she needed medical attention.
Azarenka, who lost in the final last year to Spain’s Paula Padusa, apologised, and continued, but Rybakina scored the decisive break point in the seventh game of the second set.
In other women’s competitions, Czech Marketa Vondrosova eliminated Estonian fourth seed Anett Kontaveit 3-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5).