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Indian Wells 2019 Recaps: Early Winners and Losers

By Harry Floyd

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 07: Venus Williams of the United States plays a forehand against Andrea Petkovic of Germany during their womens singles first round match on day four of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 07, 2019 in Indian Wells, California. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 07: Venus Williams of the United States plays a forehand against Andrea Petkovic of Germany during their womens singles first round match on day four of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 07, 2019 in Indian Wells, California. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) /
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Opening round action in men’s and women’s singles is underway at Indian Wells this year. Here’s a look at some early winners and losers.

Early round action at Indian Wells is going down this week. Let’s take a look at who’s still in the mix after the opening round. Starting with a tennis legend in Venus Williams, the American wins a hard-fought three set match against Andrea Petkovic of Germany. The back and forth match went in favor of Williams 6-4, 0-6, 6-3. She sets up an extremely interesting round of 64 meeting with the third seeded Petra Kvitova next.

Williams, who was fighting through illness on the courts, admitted to being a bit off during her opener. While Kvitova will be a favorite in their upcoming match, do not discount anyone with the resume that the American boasts. Elsewhere in women’s singles, Kristina Mladenovic wins her opener to setup another highly anticipated matchup.

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Mladenovic faces top seed and recent phenom Naomi Osaka. The top seed is the current US Open and Australian Open champion, but she did drop her most recent match to Mladenovic of all people.

Their meeting in the round of 64 appears oddly serendipitous. The French tennis star will look to win again as the underdog as she knocked Osaka out of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Some big names finding themselves heading home earlier include the likes of Samantha Stosur, Tímea Babos, Alizé Cornet, Johanna Larsson, and Alison Riske.

An early winner to keep an eye on could be Monica Puig who defeats Evgeniya Rodina and advances to take on the 21st seeded Anett Kontaveit next.

Men’s singles has its fair share of winners and loser so far too. One match we have to watch next is that between Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas and another up and comer in Felix Auger Aliassime. We dive deeper into their round of 64 meeting here following the young Canadian’s opening round win.

Next. Can Djokovic win more slams than Federer?. dark

Some early winners in men’s singles at Indian Wells to check out moving forward include the likes of Ivo Karlović, Sam Querrey, Martin Kližan, Jordan Thompson, and Albert Ramos Viñolas. The Ramos Viñolas versus Damir Džumhur in particular was one we didn’t quite see coming. Ramos Viñolas wins with ease, defeating Džumhur 6-1, 6-2.

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