Newly crowned Australian Open champion Madison Keys made a dominant start to her Indian Wells campaign, dismantling Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-0 in her first match as a Grand Slam champion. Fellow American Taylor Fritz also advanced in straight sets, overcoming Italian Matteo Gigante 6-3, 7-5.
Keys broke Potapova’s serve three times to clinch the first set before storming through the one-sided second set under the California sun, extending her winning streak to 13 matches.
“I’m so happy to be here,” Keys said in her on-court interview. “Australia was obviously an amazing moment, so it’s really nice to be playing at home for my first tournament back, in a place I’ve played at so many times, in front of some amazing people.”
Next up for the world number five is a third-round meeting with either 28th seed Elise Mertens or Australia’s Kimberly Birrell, who face off later on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Californian Fritz, the tournament’s third seed and 2022 champion, found himself tested late in his match against Gigante. Though he initially failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, he immediately broke back before closing out the victory in front of a full house on Stadium Two court.
Fritz, who suffered an abdominal injury after the Australian Open and missed last month’s event in Acapulco, acknowledged he was still finding his rhythm.
“There’s definitely things I could have done better in the match, but overall it was a pretty solid match,” he said. “I can’t expect to come back and play perfect tennis. I’ve been injured, so I didn’t have ideal prep coming into the tournament.”
Fritz will now face 30th-seeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo for a place in the round of 16.
