The Swiss Viktorija Golubic (WTA 51) has to go the full distance in her second match in California and shows good nerves. In the deciding set, she has to stay in the game twice with a break and equalize 5: 5 and 6: 6. In the tie-break she uses her second match point against the Italian, who is five places ahead of her in the world rankings after a good two and a half hours. In the previous round, she beat WTA third-placed Aryna Sabalenka.
Strange Azarenka incident
Kazakh Jelena Rybakina (WTA 20), the first seeded player in the highly endowed tournament, is now waiting for Golubic on Wednesday night. The Moscow-born 22-year-old made it through to the round of 16 in a match against Belarusian Viktoria Azarenka, which resulted in a strange incident.
The former number 1 from Minsk suddenly collapsed sobbing after a double fault at the beginning of the second set, but was able to continue playing after a short break. Nothing is known about the reasons for the violent outburst of emotion.
Nadal with 17th win in a row
In the men’s tableau, Rafael Nadal, who is still flawless this year, comes to his 17th win in a row. The 35-year-old beat Brit Daniel Evans 7: 5, 6: 3 and now meets the 2.11 m tall American Reilly Opelka (ATP 17).
Nadal is the only top-five player still in the tournament ahead of the round of 16. After Daniil Medvedev, who will hand over the lead in the world rankings to the absent Novak Djokovic, and Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas also fails early on. The Greek is defeated by American hopeful Jenson Brooksby in three sets. (SDA)