Fed Cup player Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau) has continued her negative trend at the top-class Premier Mandatory tournament in Indian Wells. Also for Maria Sharapova the first round was a final stop.
Maria, number 56 in the WTA World Ranking, was defeated by the Croatian Petra Martic (WTA No. 51) in 70 minutes with 3:6,1:6 at the start and thus failed again because of her first hurdle. In the main draw in Angelique Kerber (Kiel/Nr. 10), Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe/Nr. 12), Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) and Mona Barthel (Neumünster) there are four other German players. Andrea Petkovic (Darmstadt) and Sabine Lisicki (Berlin) had already failed in the qualification.
So far this year, Maria has only one single win: At the Fed Cup victory of the Germans in the first-round match against hosts Belarus in Minsk, the 30-year-old won the match 2-1 – and later won the deciding doubles at Anna-Lena Grönefeld’s (Nordhorn) side. On the WTA tour, Maria already claimed the eighth consecutive first-round defeat.
The Russian Maria Sharapova (30), Indian Wells winner of 2006 and 2013, also missed the jump into the second round. At her first start at the Tennis Garden in the Californian desert in three years, five-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, who was ten years younger than Naomi Osaka, lost in 1:35 hours with 4:6,4:6. The Japanese, who had eliminated Angelique Kerber in the first round of the US Open 2017, will be coached by Sascha Bajin from Munich.
Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic had to fight off a match ball before the 1-6,6-1,7-6 (7-4) win against aspiring Hungarian Timea Babos was over after 2-23 hours. Wildcard owner Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) lost 3-6,4-6 to US qualifier Sachia Vickery.
On Thursday, the two returnees Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka will also enter the tournament. The Indian Wells event, which is considered the fifth Grand Slam tournament, is endowed with a total of 7.97 million dollars for women. The winner will receive $1.34 million and 1000 points.