World No 1 Iga Swiatek passed the test she’d been looking for, roaring through the tiebreaker to win a roller-coaster clash with Bianca Andreescu 6-3, 7-6 (7/1) to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells.
The victory took her a step closer to becoming just the second woman, after Martina Navratilova in 1990 and ‘91, to win back-to-back titles in the combined WTA and ATP Masters 1000 event.
She would go on to win the French and US Opens last year, but she got a run for her money from Canada’s Andreescu, whose 2019 Indian Wells triumph was the springboard to a breakout season that included a US Open title.
SPONSOR AD