By Mike McIntyre
Photos: Jimmie48 Tennis Photography
It's down to the final eight in the desert in Indian Wells on the WTA Tour and the final 16 on the ATP Tour and it wasn't without some surprises that's for sure Tuesday saw some big upsets including the loss of World No. 1 (and pre-tournament favorite) Novak Djokovic which dramatically shifted the tournaments odds among the men. On the women's side, the upsets went even further with the tournament's top two seeds falling out of the draw. Both No. 1 Naomi Osaka and No. 2 Simona Halep were defeated but neither should come as a total shock given the deep level of talent that permeates the women's game right now. Osaka was brought down by a resurgent and now healthy Belinda Bencic while Halep was taken out by rising 19 year old Czech star Marketa Vondrousova. Let's take a look at the remaining eight women as we approach the end of the so-called 5th Grand Slam.
Belinda Bencic vs Karolina Pliskova (5)
Switzerland's Belinda Bencic had without a doubt the biggest upset of the day and she did it with commanding authority over World No. 1 Naomi Osaka by a score of 6-3, 6-1. Bencic burst onto the tennis scene in 2015 when she won the Rogers Cup in Toronto defeating six players along the way who had previously made it to a Grand Slam final at some point in their careers. Injuries prevented her from continuing her upward trajectory but at only 22 years old, she still has the bulk of her career ahead of her.
Former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova is always in the mix of names of contenders and already has won a WTA title earlier in 2019 in Brisbane. The "Ace Queen" has been serving bombs all week with 13 of them in her round of sixteen victory over Anett Kontaveit whom she defeated 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-2. Pliskova has never faced Bencic in a WTA match so there's no history to draw upon here. Pliskova made the quarterfinals a year ago and has twice before made the semis. As for Bencic, this her best ever result in Indian Wells which previously had been the final sixteen back in 2015.
Venus Williams vs Angie Kerber
You wouldn't know that Venus Williams is 38 years old from the way she has been playing over the past week. The 7-time Grand Slam champion has looked sharp and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Mona Barthel. This is the fourth consecutive time that Venus has played in Indian Wells after a fifteen year hiatus due to treatment she and her sister Serena received from disappointed fans. The sisters received a harsh reaction from fans who were upset that the older Williams pulled-out of a semifinal match against her sister just minutes before it was scheduled to begin. With that incident long behind her now, Venus has played well in the desert and just last year made the semifinals. Should she win against Kerber it will be the fourth semifinal of her career in Indian Wells.
Kerber has a 5-3 lead in her head-to-head against Venus with their last match taking place in 2018 in Sydney with the German prevailing in three sets. It's the American however who leads their hard court encounters by a 3-2 margin. Kerber came through an odd match Tuesday night against Aryna Sabalanka. After storming through the opening set 6-1 and taking a 2-0 lead in the second, suddenly Sabalenka began to find her game while Kerber struggled to maintain her consistency. Sabalenka would take the second set 6-4 to even the match and then the Belarussian in fact led 4-1 in the final set before Kerber snapped-out of her funk and won the final five consecutive games to take the bizzare match.
Garbine Muguruza (20) vs Bianca Andreescu
If this match had been taking place prior to the 2019 season most people outside of Canada would have asked who exactly is Bianca Andreescu? With a 25-3 record to start 2019 the talented 18 year old is no longer a secret kept north of the border and many would call this match an almost even split. Andreescu has made the first WTA final of her young career in Auckland falling to Julia Goerges in three sets. She qualified and then won her first ever Grand Slam match in Melbourne and then won the tournament in Newport Beach, California for the biggest title of her career thus far. Andreescu has wins this year over big-time players like Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams, so the intimidation factor likely won't be present as she prepares to face two-time Slam champ Muguruza.
Muguruza has shown some good tennis as well this week yet she has been lying-low since making the semi-finals last year at Roland Garros and has slipped to 20th in the WTA rankings. Muguruza's last title was in April of last year against a weaker field in Monterrey, Mexico. Here in Indian Wells she beat Lauren Davis in her first match, got past Serena Williams 6-3, 3-0 before the American retired with a viral illness and then most recently defeated Kiki Bertens 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. This will be her first career meeting against Andreescu and hopefully the Spaniard has done her homework or she very well may find herself as Andreescu's 26th victim of the season.
Elina Svitolina (6) vs Marketa Vondrousova
For 6th seeded Elina Svitolina, her solid tennis this week on court has been overshadowed in some ways by her GEMS Life posts on social media that chronicle the adventures between her and companion and ATP pro Gael Monfils. The acronym stands for Gael Elina Monfils Svitolina for those who aren't aware and the duo are certainly both enjoying plenty of success on their respective tour's so far this year. Svitolina had a tough battle with Ash Barty on Tuesday to reach the quarters, but prevailed 7-6(8), 5-7, 6-4. This marks Svitolina's deepest run in Indian Wells though she will of course be hoping to extend that even further as she takes-on 19 year old Marketa Vondrousova.
Vondrousova is not an unknown quantity in the same sense as fellow teenager Bianca Andreescu. It was in 2018 that the Czech talent served notice of her capabilities when she made the round of sixteen at this very event. There she defeated Jo Konta and Aryna Sabalenka to raise some eyebrows with her strong play. Despite losing both previous career meetings against Svitolina (both in 2018), Vondrousova is still maturing as a professional tennis player. She has already accumulated a 149-33 record on the WTA Tour coming into this event and is going to be a presence for years to come. The lefty is currently ranked 61st in the world and is coming off a finalist appearance in Bucharest. Regardless of the result against Svitolina, Vondrousova is making strides and proving her result from a year ago here were no fluke.