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This could well be the best match #NataliaVikhlyantseva had ever played in her career as she simply outclassed 26th seed #CarlaSuarezNavarro in the second round of the 2019 #BNPParibasOpen. The Russian overcame a slow start and prevailed with a stunning 6-2, 6-0 scoreline after just an hour and four minutes of play, setting up an intriguing clash with Angelique Kerber in the third round.
Vikhlyantseva played some flawless tennis as she won her fourth consecutive match in Indian Wells, sending out a bagel for the third time this week. She won 78 percent of her powerful first serves but despite struggling behind her second deliveries, she was only broken twice and never let Suarez Navarro hold serve once throughout the encounter.
Suarez Navarro completely faded out in the second set with Vikhlyantseva dictating play with her strong baseline game and the match was relatively one-sided despite the Russian being ranked 112nd and not owning any top-50 wins this year. This was just Vikhlyantseva’s third top-50 win through the last 52 weeks and her first in any WTA main draw match since 2017.
By virtue of this outrageously impressive performance, Vikhlyantseva moves into the third round of a Premier Mandatory event for the first time in her career while also progressing past the second round of a WTA event for the first time since 2017 as well.
Ironically it was Vikhlyantseva who started the match in the worst possible way — unable to find her first serves and getting stuck in a long, deuce game and often misfiring her shots. Suarez Navarro took full advantage and grabbed the opening break on her fifth opportunity. In the past, such instances would have caused the Russian youngster to lose confidence and gradually fade away through the match, but this time around Vikhlyantseva was up to the challenge and broke straight back with a roaring return winner.
Suarez Navarro then blew a 0-30 lead in the third game, which could have possibly been crucial as Vikhlyantseva went on to hold her serve for a 2-1 lead. The Spaniard veteran was struggling to deal with the pace of the Russian’s shots and was often found on the defence. Within a blink of an eye, Vikhlyantseva burst out to a commanding 5-1 advantage having rattled off five consecutive games.
She had the chance to close out the virtual bagel but a double fault on set point paved the way for Suarez Navarro to dig deep and retrieve one of the breaks back. In what was the longest game of the affair, the 26th seed served to stay in the set and held her ground to save an additional of four set points, but could not fend off the sixth after sending a backhand long.
The second set was simply flawless from Vikhlyantseva who did not leave any mercy for her powerless opponent. She started the second set in some style — rattling off 12 of the first 15 points to roar towards a commanding 3-0 lead within a flash as Suarez Navarro had no answers to the power play from the Russian.
Vikhlyantseva’s previous top-30 win came against Alize Cornet in Moscow 2017 where she reached the semifinals, and this time after a bright start to the year she finally claimed a huge scalp and closed out the win with a routine forehand winner; pushing herself up the rankings once more. A win against Kerber will not only see her claim a maiden top-10 win but also seal a return to the top-100.
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