Published: March 8, 2026 at 5:41 pm
Rising Croatian Antonia Ruzic continued her strong start to 2026 with a 6-4, 7-5 upset over former World No. 4 Zheng Qinwen at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday, surging into the third round in her tournament debut.
The 23-year-old Ruzic edged Zheng in 1 hour and 54 minutes by playing her best when it mattered. Both players had nine break-point chances in the contest, but Ruzic won four to Zheng’s two. She erased an early break deficit at 3-2 to win the first set, and in the second, regrouped after Zheng won three straight games to knot the score from 5-2 behind.
The win for Ruzic against the 2024 Olympic champion is her eighth career Top 20 win, a total that’s doubled since January. Up next for her is another such player in the form of No. 13 seed and Doha champion Karolina Muchova.
But Ruzic wasn’t the only unseeded player to make a splash against a seed on Saturday. American Ashlyn Krueger and Brit Sonay Kartal also scored upset wins, against No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova and No. 20 seed Emma Navarro, respectively.
The 21-year-old, a recent semifinalist in Austin, made it consecutive tournaments at which she’s won at least two matches by coming from a 6-3, 5-3 deficit to beat Samsonova 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. The World No. 82 hammered 11 aces against Samsonova, and won six straight games on way to taking a lead she’d never relinquish in the decider.
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Prior to her final-four effort in Texas, Krueger hadn’t won back-to-back matches since last year’s Miami Open. Samsonova, meanwhile, has now lost six straight three-set matches this year.
Elsewhere, former Top 10 player Navarro dropped to 4-8 this year after losing to Kartal 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2), in 2 hours and 34 minutes. Navarro twice served for the win in the final set, at 5-4 and 6-5, and buried a forehand into the net on match point in the 12th game. Two points later, she dropped serve and lost five straight points after opening the deciding tiebreak with a mini break.
Kartal, who reached the fourth round in Tennis Paradise 12 months ago in her tournament debut, will face another American, No. 15 seed Madison Keys, next.
Siniakova downs Fernandez in a marathon
In another match, 268 points played. 208 minutes on court. Thirty-seven break point chances between two players who refused to go down without a fight. But in the end, only one number mattered: one, as in the one player who could walk off victorious, and on this night, it was Katerina Siniakova.
The former doubles World No. 1 outlasted No. 27 seed Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (1) in 3 hours and 28 minutes to advance to the third round for the second straight year, in what stands as the second-longest match on the WTA Tour this season.
The match finished just three minutes shy of the season’s longest contest, a 3-hour, 31-minute thriller between Elsa Jacquemot and Marta Kostyuk in the first round of the Australian Open.
Pegula begins with victory against Vekic
Meanwhile, fifth seed Jessica Pegula of the United States kicked off her campaign with a three-set win over Croatia’s Donna Vekic. She will next meet former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia for a place in the round of 16.
Pegula had won both previous meetings between the two, both of which came on grass, in straight sets. But Vekic, ranked No. 103 on the WTA Tour, ended that streak by claiming the first set 6-4. Pegula did not let that trouble her as she fought back to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-3 to complete the win in 1 hour, 55 minutes.
Andreeva blanks Sierra 6-0, 6-0
Mirra Andreeva she bageled Solana Sierra in under 30 minutes in the opening set and completed a flawless 6-0, 6-0 win in 50 minutes to open her title defense and reach the third round.
She became the first player to record a 6-0, 6-0 victory in women’s singles at Indian Wells since Victoria Azarenka defeated Magdalena Rybarikova in 2016. She is also the first player to win 6-0, 6-0 in a WTA-level main-draw match this season. She will face Katerina Siniakova in the third round.
