We take a look at selected fixtures from the WTA Tour’s Indian Wells Open taking place at the Indian Wells, California on the 13th of March as Osaka takes on Bencic and Sabalenka faces Kerber.
2019 WTA Tour
WTA Indian Wells Open
WTA Premier Mandatory
Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Indian Wells, California, United States- Outdoor Hardcourt
Selected Round of 16 Matches- 13th March
Naomi Osaka (1) (9/20) vs Belinda Bencic (23) (31/20)
Naomi Osaka continues in her quest to reclaim the title that she so magnificently captured last season. Indian Wells really was the catalyst for her rise to prominence in world sport. She has clearly had to overcome criticisms regarding her axing of Coach Sascha Bajin. The murmurs only intensified following that shock opening round loss to Mladenovic in Dubai. But she has already avenged that defeat with her opening round victory here. She then trounced Danielle Collins in another imposing display of her undoubted power. Osaka has claimed the last two Grand Slam titles and will clearly go into this match as the huge favourite. She seems to love these conditions and is essentially playing in front of a home crowd.
Belinda Bencic has actually gone about building one of the more impressive resumes of any player this year. She won the Hopman Cup for the 2nd consecutive year alongside Roger Federer. She reached the semi-final in Hobart prior to a solid 3rd round showing at the Aussie Open. But it really was her exploits in Dubai that shook the tennis community. She won the prestigious title with a series of monumental scalps to her name. She beat Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina and Petra Kvitova in her final three matches. In reality, this resurgence actually started towards the end of last season. She reached the final of the Luxembourg Open prior to claiming an ITF title. Bencic seems to have found a way of harnessing the talent that she has possessed since the beginning of her career.
This will be their 3rd ever meeting, with the two sharing the spoils at one win apiece. In actual fact, it was Bencic who won their last encounter. She won on the hardcourts in last season’s Hopman Cup. That crucially came on hardcourts. I think that Bencic is not quite long enough here to excite me. 1/1 for Osaka to win in straight sets may actually turn out to be the best way to go. She seems to have rediscovered the rhythm that saw her claim those Grand Slam titles.
Aryna Sabalenka (15/20) (9) vs Angelique Kerber (19/20) (8)
Angelique Kerber is certainly a player in need of a deep run. Last year’s Wimbledon champion has certainly been in a regressive slide since that title. This year’s semi-final in Qatar is thus far her only post-Wimbledon semi-final appearance. It’s obviously fairly understandable that the German’s form would suffer a decline after such a career defining performance. Her form last season had been extremely steady leading up to Wimbledon. She reached the quarterfinals here in a slew of quarterfinal showings. She also managed an excellent semi-final showing in the Aussie Open. I’m sure she would love a return to the consistency that clearly laid a path towards that Wimbledon crown.
The Wimbledon Champion will be taking on last year’s WTA Newcomer of the year: Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian enjoyed a fantastic season, claiming two titles in fantastic style. She claimed the Connecticut Open prior to that wonderful Premier 5 title in China. She claimed that unlikely Wuhan Open title in fairly unbelievable fashion. She then carried that great form into 2019 with a victory at the relatively benign Shenzhen Open to start the season. She also managed the semi-final stage of the St Petersburg Open. She is one of the true up and coming players on the women’s tour. That makes her match against an established veteran all the more enticing.
The tennis gods have given me very little to work with, as this will be their first ever meeting. Kerber actually goes into this match has the slight underdog, which is probably fairly accurate giving her recent form. Sabalenka to me holds all the cards here. She hits absolutely massive groundstrokes that should cut through these Indian Wells courts.
