Jessica Pegula notched a second straight comeback win for herself at Indian Wells on Saturday. The third seed dropped the opening set to Anastasia Potapova before scoring a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win after more than two hours and 15 minutes of play in their third-round match.
Potapova won 65% of her first-serve points to Pegula’s 56%. The American won 61% of her second-serve points while her opponent lagged behind with 51%. There was just the one extra break of serve – Pegula converted five break points on Potapova’s serve while the latter converted four. Pegula finished the match with 106 points to Potapova’s 105.
After the win, Pegula spoke about how she changed the course of the match. She said, “I think I started playing a little bit smarter, getting a lot of depth on my shots, everything got a little bit better. She came out playing really well and I was pretty frustrated. She’s a great player. I knew that she’s been playing great.”
Pegula will take on Petra Kvitova in the fourth round. The Czech survived a bizarre third-round clash against 24th seed Jelena Ostapenko. Ostapenko bagelled Kvitova in the first set before the latter retaliated with a bagel of her own in the second set. In the deciding set, Kvitova led 4-0 before Ostapenko came back and levelled the set at four-all. Kvitova eventually wrapped up the match 0-6, 6-0, 6-4 after an hour and 49 minutes.
Maria Sakkari was another seed who secured a win for herself after coming from a set down. The seventh seed defeated 27th seed Anhelina Kalinina 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 after two-and-a-half hours. Sakkari’s fourth-round rival at Indian Wells will be 17th seed Karolina Pliskova. The Czech won against 11th seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 7-5.
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