Sharapova moves on, Wozniacki out at Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Maria Sharapova defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3 on her sixth match point in a third-round pairing of former No. 1-ranked players at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday.
Sharapova hit 23 winners, one more than Azarenka, and had 10 fewer unforced errors than Azarenka's 37 to even their all-time series at seven wins apiece.
Azarenka fought off four match points on her serve in the eighth game to hold trailing 5-3. They dueled through five deuces until Azarenka fired a big serve to keep herself in the match.
Sharapova took a 40-15 lead to set up her fifth match point, but netted a forehand. She converted on her sixth one with a shot that Azarenka couldn't return near the net.
Sharapova, a two-time champion at Indian Wells, will meet defending champion Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round. Seeded 15th, Pennetta beat Sam Stosur 6-4, 6-2 on an outside court.
Azarenka, who beat Sharapova for the title here in 2012, is just starting to return to form after a left foot injury limited her to nine tournaments last year and dropped her ranking to 32nd. The two-time Australian Open champion led 4-3 in the first set before Sharapova won the final three games.
Two more former Indian Wells champions and top-ranked players went out in the third round. Fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki lost to 31st-seeded Belinda Bencic, 6-4, 6-4, and fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic lost to 25th-seeded Caroline Garcia 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
Bencic earned her first win over a top-five player and at 18 became the youngest player to reach the fourth round this year. Last year in Istanbul, Bencic failed to win a game off Wozniacki.
"In Istanbul I had maybe too much respect and I was afraid, nervous," she said. "Today I really had a good game plan. I served well kind of, and had sometimes some easy points on my serve because of that."
In other women's matches, No. 6 seed Eugenie Bouchard beat CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-2 and qualifier Lesia Tsurenko defeated 20th-seeded Alize Cornet, 7-5, 1-6, 6-2.
Jelena Jankovic, who won here in 2010 and spent 18 weeks at No. 1 in the world, outlasted Madison Keys, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 despite the Serb having just 13 winners and 42 unforced errors.
Jankovic is coming off a back injury and torn muscle in Doha, which hampered her practice schedule.
Keys, a 20-year-old American coached by former top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, had her chances to take control, leading 3-1 in the final set. She hit 39 winners, but came undone with a whopping 64 unforced errors.