Kerber, Kalinskaya book spots in R4 of Indian Wells

Angelique Kerber and Anna Kalinskaya are the first winners of today at the Indian Wells defeating Kasatkina and Golubic.

Both of these matches went the full distance and both were rather exceptional ultimately seeing Kerber and Kalinskaya move on. The Russian player faced Viktorija Golubic who already bested two seeds at the event in Sakkari and Vondrousova. Golubic kicked off the match in stellar fashion winning the opening set with 6-1. Kalinskaya made too many errors but that changed in the 2nd set.

She turned it around and started hitting the ball much more cleanly which yielded results with Kalinskaya winning the 2nd with 6-1. In the final one, both had chances but Kalinskaya was once again too good for her opponent especially towards the end of the set where Golubic simply lost it.

Joining her in the next round will be Angelique Kerber who took on her friend Daria Kasatkina with whom she practiced since arriving in the desert. They played a very good match with Kerber playing a solid first set that she won 6-2. Kasatkina was unable to hit through Kerber who covered the court very well. In the 2nd set, she was able to play much better while Kerber collapsed completely losing the set 1-6.

The final set was a very close one with both players playing well. They traded early breaks with the first four games all featuring loss of serves. At 3-3, Kerber was able to carve out 3 consecutive break points failing to use them. Luckily she got another one in the game and she took it which allowed her to close out the match.