Indian Wells, Oct. 12 (U.S.) – Senior servers Karolina Pliskova, Bianca Andreescu and Riley Opelka saw their most powerful weapon neutralized by strong desert winds on Monday as they all crashed out of Indian Wells.
The biggest upset of the day came when lucky loser Beatriz Haddad defeated world number 115th, top seed Pliskova 6-3 7-5 Maya in a match where service runs were rare as winds reached 40 mph.
Pliskova, who reached the Wimbledon final in July, issued 12 double faults to five aces and the Brazilian broke them eight times in the third round encounter, Reuters reported.
Haddad Maya will next meet Anett Kontaveit after the Estonian beat defending champion Bianca Andreescu 7-6 (5) 6-3 to extend their winning streak to eight matches.
Kontaveit, who already has two hardcourt titles to her name this season, won the final five matches of the match to edge out the 2019 champion from Canada, who also won the US Open that year.
Towering American Riley Opelka’s resounding serve lacked its usual sting as he fell 6-3 6-4 to Grigor Dimitrov.
The win was a retaliation for Dimitrov, who lost to Opelka in straight sets at the Canadian Open in August.
Dimitrov will next meet top seed Daniil Medvedev or 27th seed Filip Krajinovic, who plays later on Monday.
In other third-round matches, Britain’s Diego Schwartzman sent Dan Evans to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 draw, and 10th seed Angelique Kerber beat Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
Evans, who reached the fourth round of the US Open last month, battled from 5-2 down to win the first set and maintained the momentum to break the 11th-seeded Argentina in the opener of Game Two.
But Schwartzman returned to convert four of his six break points in the second set to settle the match. Evans never regained his strength as Schwartzman dropped only two points on the first serve in the third set.
Kerber came out on top in a swing competition as she fell out of the second set after winning just 11 from 28 first serve points. The German avoided a double break point to close out the match.
American John Isner, seeded 20, withdrew ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled third-round match against Yannick Sener to fly home for the birth of his third child.