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Indian Wells - Angelique Kerber might yet celebrate her
return to number one with an Indian Wells title after battling past Pauline
Parmentier 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the fourth round on Monday.
Parmentier, the world number 62 from France, had the
two-time Grand Slam champion from Germany on the ropes with a break and a 4-1
lead in the third set.
But Kerber fought back with a break in the seventh game and
another in a marathon 11th game that gave her a 6-5 lead and a chance to serve
for the match.
"I think I was starting to believe in myself again and
trying to take this challenge and trying to play point by point," Kerber
said of her mindset after going down a break in the deciding set.
"I was not thinking about what has happened before,
just going for it and trying to move in good, bring a lot of balls back, and
going for it when I have the chance."
Kerber, who rose to number one in the world with her US Open
triumph last year, is set to regain the summit no matter how far she goes this
week thanks to the injury withdrawal of Serena Williams.
She needed two hours and 33 minutes in the baking sun on
Stadium Court to get past Parmentier, who until this year had never won a match
at Indian Wells in five prior appearances.
Kerber sealed it on her third match point - but not before
Parmentier had one last chance to break in the final game.
Kerber next faces Russian Elena Vesnina, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4
winner over Hungarian Timea Babos.
Fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep, yet to regain peak form
in the wake of a nagging knee injury, was dispatched by in-form Kristina
Mladenovic 6-3, 6-3.
France's Mladenovic, who has already lifted one trophy and
reached another WTA final in 2017, had no trouble notching another top-five
win.
"I perfectly played the game plan I had,"
Mladenovic said. "Solid at times, make her play balls and making her take
some risk. Sometimes when I had the shorter (ball) stepping in, playing my
heavy shots with the forehand. I think that worked pretty well today."
Halep wasn't too discouraged, saying the knee trouble that
forced her to pull out of St. Petersburg before her quarter-final in February
had since limited her training.
"After the first set my legs were gone," Halep
said. "My tennis legs were not here yet."
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams booked a
fourth-round berth with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Lucie Safarova.
Williams, seeded 12th in her second tournament since a
runner-up finish to her sister Serena in the Australian Open in January, had
saved three match points en route to a second-round victory over Jelena
Jankovic, but needed no heroics against the 40th-ranked Czech.
The American veteran next faces either sixth-seeded
Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland or China's Peng Shuai.
It will be a US Open rematch when ninth-seeded American Madison Keys takes on Japan's Naomi Osaka.
The two played a third-round thriller at Flushing Meadows last year, with Keys triumphing in a third-set tiebreaker after rallying from 5-1 down in the third.
