Indian Wells Open Archives

Stubborn Fritz shrugs off injury to see off Nadal at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS: Taylor Fritz’s stubborn streak stood him in good stead on Sunday as the American worked through a painful ankle injury in time to see off Spanish great Rafael Nadal in the ATP Indian Wells Masters final.

Hours earlier it looked like the 24-year-old American ranked 20th in the world wouldn’t be able to take the court for what would turn out to be the greatest win of his career.

But after treatment to numb the pain and against the advice of several in his camp, Fritz found himself celebrating a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) triumph over the 21-time Grand Slam champion.

“In the end, I am glad I made this decision,” Fritz said. “We’ll see how it is tomorrow. I have an MRI tomorrow.”

He acknowledged that his participation in next week’s Miami Masters is now “questionable.”

But he’s not sorry he’s so “incredibly stubborn.”

The 24-year-old Californian said that’s part of what helped him recover in time for Wimbledon last year after he departed Roland Garros in a wheelchair then underwent surgery to repair damage in his right knee.

“I think I’m an extremely stubborn person,” he said of his ability to shake off the injury. “I also think I have a very high pain tolerance and not a lot of regard for potentially damaging myself worse if I think there’s a chance I can get on the court and play.

“It’s probably a lot of not-so-good things that get me on the court,” added Fritz, who also kept playing in Toronto last year when he was “seeing fuzzy and almost blacking out.”

He had plenty of incentive to tough it out on Sunday, with a chance to play one of the game’s greats at a tournament he attended with his father as a child growing up in Southern California.

The reward was a first Masters 1000 title that made him the first American to win at the elite level since John Isner won in Miami in 2018.

“My dad brought me here as a kid,” Fritz said. “He told me that I was going to win this tournament one day when I was a little kid.

“He was just really, really proud of me,” Fritz said of his emotional post-match talk with his parents. “And it’s tough to get a compliment out of him.”

While Fritz’s ankle injury may keep him out of Miami, he believes his Indian Wells win is a step toward his current goal of reaching the top 10.

“This helps a lot,” he said. “I’d love to go way higher than that and achieve way more than that.”

READ: Iga Swiatek beats Maria Sakkari to win Indian Wells WTA title

Iga Swiatek beats Maria Sakkari to win Indian Wells WTA title

LONDON: Former French Open champion Iga Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 on Sunday to win the WTA Indian Wells title and move to a career-high ranking of number two in the world.

Swiatek’s fifth career title was her second in as many tournaments after her triumph in Doha last month and pushed her WTA match win-streak to 11.

It also ensured the 20-year-old from Poland, who shot to prominence with her victory at Roland Garros in 2020, will climb two spots to supplant Barbora Krejcikova at number two in the rankings behind Australian Ashleigh Barty on Monday.

“I’m really overwhelmed and honestly my mind is blown,” Swiatek said, explaining that coming into the tournament she didn’t think it was “realistic” to think she could maintain the level that saw her win Doha for a second straight tournament.

“I wouldn’t think of myself as someone who’s ready to play two tournaments in a row and win it,” she said.

However, now that she’s followed Agnieszka Radwanska as the only Polish player to reach number two in the world, she’s aiming even higher.

“I feel like getting the number one is closer and closer,” she said.

Greece’s Sakkari, who came into the tournament ranked sixth in the world and also had a chance to get to number two with a victory, will rise to a career-high third.

Both players struggled to find a rhythm on another breezy day in the California desert, where their first set featured six breaks of serve in what Swiatek called “crazy” conditions.

“For sure you could see that we are, in the beginning, a little bit stressed, and the wind is also not helping,” Swiatek said.

“But I’m pretty glad that I played better and better every game, and I managed to somehow find a little bit of balance even in these conditions.

“It was pretty hard to actually play the tactics that I wanted because of the conditions. But I wanted just to stay consistent and really solid because that’s the most important thing when the ball is going, you know, in weird directions.”

Trailing 5-4 in the first, Sakkari led 40-30 but sent two backhands into the net to give Swiatek a set point, which the Greek saved with a forehand winner.

Sakkari came up with a service winner to save another set point, then double-faulted to give Swiatek a third chance, the Pole taking the set when Sakkari stroked a backhand into the net.

With a set in hand, Swiatek dominated in the second. Although she couldn’t convert two break points in the second game as Sakkari made it 1-1, Swiatek roared through the next six games to close it out in 80 minutes and remain unbeaten in five career WTA finals.

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Paula Badosa keeps Indian Wells WTA title defense on track

INDIAN WELLS: Spain’s Paula Badosa kept her Indian Wells WTA title defence on track Tuesday, holding off determined Canadian Leylah Fernandez to reach the quarter-finals in the California desert.

Badosa, seeded fifth, saved five of the six break points she faced and kept last year’s US Open runner-up under pressure — converting three of her 12 break chances.

“Today was very tough,” said Badosa, who lifted the trophy last October in a tournament moved from its usual March date because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Leylah is an amazing player, very fast and good timing. I knew I had to fight and serve very well. I think I did that the entire match.”

Badosa is vying to become the first woman to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles since Martina Navratilova in 1990-91.

She gained the upper hand in the second set with a break for 3-2, then saved a pair of breakpoints in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead.

“In the important moments, like 4-3, down the breakpoints, I think I stayed very composed,” added Badosa, who next faces Veronica Kudermetova, a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 winner over Marketa Vondrousova.

World number four Iga Swiatek, the highest-ranked player remaining in the women’s field, rallied from a set down for a third straight match to book her quarter-final berth, beating crafty German veteran Angelique Kerber 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, is coming off a title in Doha last month, but the 20-year-old admitted it took her a while to figure out how to tackle Kerber – another former Grand Slam champion.

“Truth be told, I wasn’t really sure what my tactics should be if I should be more aggressive or play a more patient game,” Swiatek said. “But at the end, I think I made the right decision at right time, in the right moments of the match.”

She said Kerber showed her a different game than she’d expected after practising with the German.

“I felt like she wanted to use her experience and kind of trick me,” Swiatek said.

Swiatek next faces American Madison Keys, who beat British qualifier Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-4.

Former world number one Simona Halep of Romania seeded 24th, swept into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over 26th-seeded compatriot Sorana Cirstea.

Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion is in the quarters for the fifth time at Indian Wells, where she lifted the trophy in 2015.

Halep will play Petra Martic for a place in the semi-finals. Croatia’s Martic beat Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece advanced with a victory over Australian qualifier Daria Saville, who was trailing 4-1 when she retired with a left thigh injury.

Sakkari will play Elena Rybakina, who beat Viktorija Golubic 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.

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