AFTER a couple of days of predictable tennis, the WTA Tour’s Indian Wells draw was blown wide open as three top 10 seeds were bundled out in a day of upsets. Second seed Karolina Pliskova, third seed Sofia Kenin, and eighth seed Naomi Osaka were all knocked out of the fantasy tennis tournament in the Round of 16 as their opponents progressed through to the quarter finals.

The biggest upset of the day belonged to Belgium’s Elise Mertens who booked a spot in the last eight with an impressive come-from-behind win over Pliskova. Mertens lost a heart-breaking tiebreaker in the first set 13-11, but then came back to break her Czech opponent early and then hold on for the set to level the scores. It was a similar story in the third and deciding set, but this time the break came near the end of the set to win overall, 6-7 6-3 6-3 in two hours and two minutes. It set up a massive quarter finals clash with multiple Grand Slam winner, Serena Williams.

In the only expected result of the day, Williams was able to tame the talents of Ukrainian teenager, Dayana Yastremska 6-2 6-2 in 52 minutes. The American was on song with 28 winners and only 14 unforced errors to control the play and ensure she was able to hold a double-break in both sets to triumph fairly comfortably. It meant she reached the final eight once again but will have to do well to take down a clearly in-form Mertens.

In the other quarter final, ninth seed Aryna Sabalenka will face fellow up-and-comer Elena Rybakina in what is anticipated as a battle of the future stars. Sabalenka stunned third seed Kenin 6-0 in the first set, trouncing the Australian Open winner in just 27 minutes. She had a much tougher assignment in the second set, and despite leading 5-3 with a break at one stage, could not close it out until the tiebreaker. Close it out she did though, winning 7-2 in the tiebreaker to take out the match 6-0 7-6. Meanwhile Rybakina knocked out eighth seed Osaka 6-2 6-2 in an hour and two minutes. She showed the kind of form that has seen her shoot into the top 20 over the past six months and piled on the pain for Osaka who has not had the best start to 2020.

In concluding the Round of 16 tomorrow, four matches take place with world number one, Ash Barty facing 24th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and 21st seed Donna Vekic hoping to cause an upset against Swiss sensation, Belinda Bencic. The evening seed the fourth and fifth seeds in Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens going up against Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sakkari respectively.

ROUND OF 16 MATCHES:

[20] Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated [2] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 6-7 6-3 6-3
[9] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) defeated [3] Sofia Kenin (USA) 6-0 7-6
[7] Serena Williams (USA) defeated [22] Dayana Yastremska (UKR) 6-2 6-2
[15] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated [8] Naomi Osaka (JPN) 6-2 6-2