Sawt Falasteen - Sabalenka opens Indian Wells bid with dominant win

Sabalenka and men's world number two Jannik Sinner headlined the day's play as seeded players swung into action after enjoying first-round byes.

Sabalenka, playing her first tournament since a runner-up finish to Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, showed no sign of rust as she overpowered 136th-ranked Sakatsume, who was playing her first career match against a top-20 player.

"I'm really happy with the way I was serving, with the way I was putting her on the back foot," said Sabalenka, who has twice reached the Indian Wells final but lost to Elena Rybakina in 2023 and to Mirra Andreeva last year.

A nervous Sakatsume dropped her serve in the opening game but steadied after saving four break points to hold in the fifth.

Even so, she had no real answer to the Belarusian's power and the lone break was enough for Sabalenka to seize the opening set.

After Sakatsume held serve to open the second, Sabalenka won five straight games, closing out the match after 72 minutes without facing a break point.

Men's fourth-seed Alexander Zverev also booked a third-round berth in emphatic style, beating Italian Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-4.

Zverev didn't face a break point, breaking Berrettini's serve once in each set to polish off the brisk victory.

It was an encouraging start for the German who fell in his opening match last year in the California desert, where he has never made it past the quarter-finals.

"I am very happy with the performance," Zverev said. "He is somebody that is extremely aggressive, massive forehand, massive serve. When you back off a little bit, it is very difficult against him, but today I thought I was the one pushing, I was the one being aggressive."

Zverev hopes it's a harbinger of things to come.

"I have struggled in Indian Wells before, but I feel different this year," he said.

In other early matches, 10th-seeded Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko held off Australian Kimberly Birrell 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).

"It's my first time playing here, so a lot of emotions," said Mboko, whose rise to 10th in the world was cemented with a runner-up finish in Doha last month. "I feel like I've learned a lot in the past year and I'm still learning. It's just upwards."

Britain's Emma Raducanu, seeded 25th, was quick out of the blocks with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over qualifier Anastasia Zakharova.

- Musetti setback -

Raducanu, ousted in the second round of the Australian Open, arrived in California buoyed by a runner-up finish last month in Romania, where she reached her first final since her upset triumph at the 2021 US Open.

Hungarian veteran Marton Fucsovics fashioned a significant upset, ousting fifth-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti 7-5, 6-1.

It was another disappointing setback for Musetti, who was playing his first tournament since he retired with a right leg injury while leading 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic by two sets in the Australian Open quarter-finals.

Italy's Sinner, a two-time semi-finalist at Indian Wells, launched his bid for a first title in a night-session opener against Czech qualifier Dalibor Svrcina.

Sinner missed Indian Wells last year serving a suspension for a positive test for banned anabolic steroid clostebol. He returned from the suspension to win Wimbledon and the ATP Finals but fell to Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals and lost to Jakob Mensik in the quarters at Doha last month.

Other marquee matches saw world number four Coco Gauff taking on qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan, and 16th seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan facing qualifier Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra.

I.Yassin--SF-PST