In the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, Iga Swiatek exacted revenge on Linda Noskova, who had eliminated her at the Australian Open, defeating the teenage Czech 6-4, 6-0.
The men’s draw saw the advancement of second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and third-seeded Jannik Sinner in straight sets, but fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev fell to No. 32 seed Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-4.
The top-seeded Polish player, Swiatek, will play Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the round of 16. It was a difficult day for American singles players as Putintseva defeated Madison Keys 6-4, 6-1.
Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Francis Tiafoe 6-3, 6-3, and Caroline Wozniacki defeated Katie Volynets 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. Ben Shelton, the last American on the court, did succeed in defeating Francisco Cerundolo with a thrilling 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 triumph. The crucial tiebreaker was won by Shelton, 7–5.
Shelton, ranked sixteenth, moved on to play Sinner in the round of 16. Tsitsipas, ranked eleventh, will take on Lehecka.
Noskova became the first teenager to defeat a woman rated number one in that event in 25 years when she defeated Swiatek in three sets in Australia. After a close first set, Swiatek cruised to win in just under seventy-three minutes in the rematch.
“I made some mistakes at the beginning. I tried to maybe play to finish the rallies too early,” Swiatek remarked. “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 defeated Anna Kalinskaya in a close match, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Two weeks earlier, Paolini defeated Kalinskaya in a three-set final to win the Dubai Championships.
Sinner defeated Jan Lennard-Struff 6-3, 6-4, while Alcaraz defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-3.
“I love playing here. I think it’s called the fifth Grand Slam, and I know why,” Alcaraz remarked. “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 play Fabian Marozsan, the Hungarian who defeated him ten months earlier at the Italian Open as a 135th-ranked qualifier.
“After that match I really wanted to rematch that match against him,” Alcaraz stated. “I mean, he’s playing great tennis. He is beating big guys. … Yeah, I’m really looking forward to playing against him again.”
In an all-American doubles match, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula defeated Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-5, 6-3. After the first round, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were defeated by Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-6, 4-6, 10-8, eliminating the top-seeded men’s doubles pair.
