Day 2 at Indian Wells: Hewitt turns back the clock, Schiavone sets up 2010 French Open rematch

Lleyton Hewitt in action at the Indian Wells Masters 2014

It was Day 2 at the Indian Wells Masters 1000 series event, and both the men and the women saw first round action. First let’s take a look at the women:

Women’s singles 1st round

The big shock of the day was by far was American wildcard Taylor Townsend’s explosive 7-6, 6-1 victory against Italian Karina Knapp. Townsend now faces another Italian in 32-year-old Flavia Pennetta. Meanwhile, Italian qualifier Camilla Giorgi also advanced, beating talented German Andea Petkovic after trailing by a set.

In another ‘Italy vs Germany’ match, former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone defeated Mona Barthel, again after losing the first set, and she next plays Sam Stosur. The other German Julia Georges overcame Slovakian Jana Cepelova in a see-saw three setter and will now go up against fourth-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova.

Victoria Duval (who beat Stosur at the US Open last year) lost to Russian Alisa Kleybanova after winning the first set. Kleybanova set up a date with Spaniard Garbrine Muguruza in the second round. Another up-and-coming American, Coco Vandeweghe, beat Romanian Alexandra Cadantu in straight sets and plays mercurial Czech Petra Kvitova next. Another Romanian Monica Niculescu had a happier time, defeating Kiwi Marina Erakovic in straight sets.

“Fancy-dresser” Bethanie Mattek-Sands fell in straight sets as Caroline Garcia’s joue de vivre proved too much for the American; Garcia progresses to take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Zheng Jie set up an all-Chinese second round match after she beat Argentian Paula Ormachea. Also progressing to the second round were Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, Croats Donna Vekic and Ajla Tomljanovic, Elina Svitolina, Maria Teressa Torro, Karolina Pliskova and Barbara Zahlavova Strycova.

Interesting second round match to watch out for – The 2010 French Open final re-match, Sam Stosur vs Francesca Schiavone

Now for the men…

Men’s singles 1st round

Three Frenchmen were in action yesterday – Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Jeremy Chardy and Paul Henri-Mathieu all advanced by winning their first round matches and will now play Milos Raonic, Tommy Haas and Roger Federer, respectively. In a battle of dirtballers, Santiago Giraldo overcame Daniel Gimeno Traver 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 and now plays Kei Nishikori.

Juan Moncao defeated Canadian Peter Polansky in three sets to set up a clash with Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov. Another Argentine, Federico Delbonis fell 6-3, 6-4 to Colombian Alejandro Falla, who now plays Pole Jerzy Janowicz.

Czech Lukas Rosol beat Serb Dusan Lajovic in a thrilling three setter 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 to set up a second round clash with fifth seed Andy Murray. Croat Ivo Karlovic, who has been on a great run lately, defeated Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-4, 6-4 and now plays “the man of the moment” Stanislas Wawrinka. Radek Stepanek, after beating Denis Istomin in three sets, advanced to the second round where he will face Rafael Nadal. Another Czech Jiri Vesely also won, beating Igor Sijsling in three, and he now plays Spaniard Pablo Andujar.

Ryan Harrison defeated Kazakh Andrei Golubev to set up a clash with Italian Fabio Fognini. In an all-American clash, Jack Sock lost to Tim Smyzceck in what Jim Courier rightly described as a “reckless match”. Tim now plays the in-form Ukranian Alexandr Dolgopolov. In another all-American clash Michael Russell defeated Donald Young and now plays Russian Mikhail Youzhny. Sergiy Stakhovsky (the Federer-slayer at Wimbledon) also advanced, beating Lukasz Kubot to set up a date with Frenchman Gael Monfils.

Sam Querrey also advanced, beating qualifier Alex Kuznetsov, and will now play Italian Andreas Seppi. Lastly, former Wimbledon and US Open champion Lleyton Hewitt defeated another Aussie in Matthew Ebden 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 to set up an interesting match against Kevin Anderson.