Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez in action at Indian Wells
Fernandez vs. Garcia @ 1pm ET: DAZN, Tennis Channel, TVA Sports, TSN
Leylah Annie Fernandez shot to fame with back-to-back wins at the 2021 and 2022 Monterrey Opens, but the 20 year-old has been struggling for form this season with only four main draw wins all year.
Fernandez arrived at Indian Wells having suffered a straight sets round of 32 loss to Iga Swiatek at the Dubai Tennis Championships. But the World No.49 sought to make up for that defeat with a straight sets win of her own on Saturday - overcoming Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-4 in a powerful tournament opener in California.
Today she’ll face off against World No.5 Caroline Garcia, who’s 31-13 on hard courts this year and arrives having made it to the final of the Monterrey Open with losing a single set.
Garcia lost out in that final against Donna Vekic, but she comes into today’s clash as the strong favourite, and Fernandez may have to produce a near perfect performance to book a place in the next round this afternoon.
Garcia won in straight sets the last time that they met, but the 7-6(5), 7-5 scoreline shows Fernandez was in the running every step of the way.
That will give the Canadian reason to believe here, and we’re backing Fernandez to pull off an upset today.
Our pick: Fernandez to win (+145)
Andreescu vs. Swiatek @ 8 pm ET: DAZN, Tennis Channel, TVA Sports, TSN
Andreescu is 6-11 so far this season, with her best showing coming at last month’s Thailand Open, where she racked up three straight sets wins before a semi-final loss to Lesia Tsurenko.
Since then the 22-year old has struggled on the court - suffering opening-round defeats at both the Dubai Tennis Championships and Abu Dhabi Open.
And arriving at the BNP Paribas Open as the 32nd seed, Andreescu DID NOT have an easy ride in her opening match of the tournament - coming back from a set down to win a gruelling encounter against USA’s Peyton Stearns.
It couldn't be more different for her opponent Iga Swiatek, who’s lost only three of her 16 matches so far this season, and won the Qatar Open without dropping a single set.
One of those three losses came in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships, where Swiatek was denied yet another title after a straight sets defeat to Barbora Krejcikova.
The World No.1 made up for that in her opening match at Indian Wells though - dismantling Claire Liu 6-0, 6-1 in a match that lasted just 66 minutes.
Swiatek has won five tournaments on hard courts over the past year, and she’s 1-0 in the head-to-head record, having beaten Andreescu in straight sets when that last met at the quarterfinals of the 2022 Italian Open.
The Canadian and former U.S.Open Champion, Andreescu, needed 2 hours and 26 minutes to beat Peyton Stearns in the last round, so Swiatek is the massive favourite here.
But if Andreescu can find her A game tonight she can still ask questions of any player in the world…
Our pick: Andreescu to win a set (+266)
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