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Kerber, who once reached the No. 1 spot in the
world rankings in 2016, overcame a 2-0 deficit in the first set
and held steady during a back-and-forth second to knock off
Kudermetova. Kerber saved seven of 11 break points.
Sunday's victory was icing on the cake of an already impressive
run at Indian Wells in which Kerber also ousted No. 10 seed
Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
It's been a long road back for Kerber, who gave birth to a
daughter in February 2023. Upon returning from maternity leave,
Kerber lost six of seven matches to open the season, but she is
now starting to find a groove again.
"I love to compete, you know," Kerber said. "Having this crowd,
to having the emotions, this gives me everything."
Also taking over the spotlight on Sunday was No. 1 seed Iga
Swiatek of Poland, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over 26th-seeded Czech
Linda Noskova. In the next round, Swiatek will face Kazakhstan's
Yulia Putintseva, who upended No. 18 seed Madison Keys of the
United States 6-4, 6-1.
"I had to kind of change some negative thoughts that I had into
just thinking that I wasn't thinking about just waiting for my
chances," Swiatek said about her mindset on Sunday. "I knew that
I'm experienced enough to just, you know, hold it together and
not really let myself let these negative thoughts win. So I just
did that."
Other winners Sunday included 13th-seeded Italian Jasmine
Paolini and Russia's Anastasia Potapova, the No. 28 seed.
Paolini downed No. 21 Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-4,
while Potapova crushed Argentine Nadia Podoroska, 6-1, 6-1.
Two more matches were scheduled for later Sunday night.
--Field Level Media
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