BNP Paribas Open—Indian Wells, CA, U.S.A.
Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka won her first-career title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California on Sunday, defeating inform Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2. After a competitive 30 minutes to start the match, Osaka then began to stake her claim by running away with the rest of the encounter. Needing a total of one hour and 11 minutes to complete her win, Osaka also claimed $1,340,860 for her victory.
Striking five aces, winning 79 percent of her first serve points and breaking serve on four occasions, Osaka only lost her serve on one occasion. By contrast, Kasatkina only won 50 percent of her first serve points and 43 percent of her second serve points.
Osaka, who was unseeded entering the event, defeated Maria Sharapova, Agi Radwanska, Sachia Vickery, Maria Sakkari, Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep en-route to the final.
Kasatkina, who was in search of her second career title, fell to 13-7 on the season.
The second match of the day featured Roger Federer vs. Juan Martin del Potro in men’s final.
In a hard-hitting, riveting encounter between two Major winners, it was del Potro that overcame a late fight back by Federer to win his first-ever BNP Paribas Open title 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(2).
Needing two hours and 42 minutes to capture the second most important title of his career after his US Open victory, del Potro held a match point in the second tiebreaker before Federer stepped up his game. Trailing 5-4 down in third set with Federer serving for the title, del Potro hit a forehand winner cross-court to even the score at 5-all. With the match standing in the balance and a third-set tiebreaker on deck to settle the title, del Potro broke out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back.
Winning his 22nd career title and second of the season, del Potro also won his seventh match against Federer in 25 career meetings.
Both del Potro and Federer will next set their sets on the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, which gets underway later this week.
