No. 2 Kerber Ejected, Serena Up Sunday at Indian Wells

Czech Denisa Allertova and American Christina McHale were the major upset-makers on Saturday at Indian Wells, sending Top 10-seeded opponents packing.
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Allertova upended No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber 7-5, 7-5, while McHale stunned No. 4 Garbine Muguruza Blanco 7-5, 6-1.

“I just tried to play and just focus on every point,” said the No. 64-ranked Allertova. “I tried moving and playing into the court…I tried to play my best and I’m so happy that I won today.”

Top 10-seeded winners on the day were No. 7 Belinda Bencic who worked past American Lauren Davis 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and No. 9 Roberta Vinci who also had to put on the hard hat to outlast Russian Margarita Gasparyan 6-3, 6-7(7), 7-6(5).

Other seeded winners on the day were No. 12 Timea Bacsinszky, No. 13 Victoria Azarenka, No. 14 Ana Ivanovic, No. 17 Elina Svitolina, No. 18 Karolina Pliskova, No. 25 Johanna Konta and No. 26 Samantha Stosur.

No. 6 seed Carla Suarez Navarro withdrew from the tournament citing a right ankle injury.

Other upset-makers on the day were China’s Zhang Shuai outlasting No. 20 Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 7-6(8), 7-5; Canadian Genie Bouchard beating No. 21 Sloane Stephens 7-5, 7-5; Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig topping No. 28 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-1, 6-2; and Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova coming from a set down to beat No. 31 Daria Gavrilova 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

“I just kept trying to fight and kept trying to step in a bit and dictate the point,” said Bouchard after beating Stephens. “That works well for me — I try to do that a lot. I just had so much fun playing tonight. Sloane played a great match.”

Sunday’s highlights in Indian Wells are (1) Serena Williams vs. Yulia Putintseva, (5) Simona Halep vs. (30) Ekaterina Makarova, and (19) Jelena Jankovic vs. CoCo Vandeweghe.