IT might have ended up a somewhat predictable day in the WTA Tour’s Indian Wells fantasy tennis tournament in terms of results, but it was the manner of a number of matches that surprised. Grand Slam winners, Serena Williams and Sofia Kenin were both pushed to the brink in their home nation by lower ranked opponents but survived, while Belgian, Elise Mertens and Ukrainian, Dayana Yastremska also won in three sets.

Kenin had one of the toughest non-seeded matchups going head-to-head with tough German, Julia Goerges. The third seed American won the first set 6-4, but had to lift after Goerges hit back by winning the second set. Lift Kenin did, breaking twice in the final set to cruise to victory in the third set in a total of an hour and 47 minutes to win, 6-4 4-6 6-2. Williams had a similar story by winning a narrow first set tiebreaker before dropping the second set with a late break to 29th seed Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova. Like Kenin, Williams found the extra gear to go to against Kuznetsova, winning 7-6 4-6 6-2 in an hour and 55 minutes. In the other three set matches, Mertens came from behind to defeat Swede, Rebecca Peterson 4-6 6-3 6-3, while Yastremska took down giant-killer Marie Bouzkova from the same position, 2-6 6-2 7-5 to move through to the Round of 16.

In other results, second seed Karolina Pliskova was made to work for it in a second set tiebreaker after a dominant first set, 6-0 7-6 against 26th seed Qiang Wang, while fellow top 10 seeds Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka won in straight sets comfortably against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Alison Riske respectively. The final match saw Kazakhstan young gun, Elena Rybakina get up by a couple of breaks 6-4 6-4 over 19th seed Estonian, Anett Kontaveit to book a spot in the third round.

In tomorrow’s action there are some ripping contests, including 12th seed Johanna Konta going up against 18th seed Maria Sakkari, sixth seed Belinda Bencic facing 25th seed Amanda Anisimova, and 16th seed Marketa Vondrousova taking on 24th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[2] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) defeated [26] Qiang Wang (CHN) 6-0 7-6
[3] Sofia Kenin (USA) defeated Julia Goerges (GER) 6-4 4-6 6-2
[7] Serena Williams (USA) defeated [29] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 7-6 4-6 6-2
[8] Naomi Osaka (JPN) defeated [27] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 6-1 6-3
[9] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) defeated [17] Alison Riske (USA) 6-3 6-2
[15] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated [19] Anett Kontaveit (EST) 6-4 6-4
[20] Elise Mertens (SWE) defeated Rebecca Peterson (SWE) 4-6 6-3 6-3
[22] Dayana Yastremska (UKR) defeated Marie Bouzkova (CZE) 2-6 6-2 7-5