Indian Wells (United States) (AFP) – Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, on the comeback trail seven months after giving birth to a son, was ousted in the first round at Indian Wells on Wednesday by France’s 70th-ranked Varvara Gracheva. The Czech, who gave birth to son Petr last July, was playing her second tournament since her return from an 18-month maternity leave but remains in search of her first match win. Wednesday’s match looked a lot like her loss to Jodie Burrage in Austin last week, with Kvitova unable to close it out after pocketing the first set.
Gracheva, 24, was full of admiration for her 34-year-old opponent, who lifted the trophy at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014. “If you let me step back a little bit, I really want to congratulate her,” Gracheva said. “Because she had a child quite recently, and I’m so happy that she now has the role of a mother and a tennis player, which is very demanding. It’s very inspiring for sports, athletes, women — it’s just amazing.”
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All 32 men’s and women’s seeds have first round byes in this combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 tournament, the first leg of the US hard court “Sunshine Double” that will conclude in Miami. Gracheva lined up a second-round meeting with ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who ousted three Grand Slam winners on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion in Dubai last month.
Former world number one Naomi Osaka, who returned from a 15-month break last year after giving birth to daughter Shai in 2023, headlines the night session taking on Colombian Camila Osorio. Japan’s Osaka, who was ranked 44th in the world when she roared to her first WTA title at Indian Wells back in 2018, hasn’t played since the Australian Open, where she retired from her third-round match against Belinda Bencic with an abdominal strain. She had retired from the final in Auckland with an abdominal injury earlier in January. The winner of that match will face Clara Tauson, who was runner-up to Andreeva in Dubai.
In other early matches, French veteran Caroline Garcia lined up a second-round meeting with second-seeded defending champion Iga Swiatek with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over US wild card Bernarda Pera. “These are matches that motivate me, and also allow me to free myself and see where I’m at,” Garcia said. “I’m happy to be playing Iga. They’re always close matches, where we have a good clash of styles. I know that my game can cause her problems and that I need to be able to move in that direction.”
Japanese veteran Kei Nishikori, who revealed during the Australian Open that he almost quit tennis last year after lengthy battles with injury, defeated Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3) to line up a second-round match against 18th-seeded Ugo Humbert of France.
© 2024 AFP
