BNP Paribas Open: Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Casper Ruud cruise in first matches at Indian Wells

Coco Gauff, the American teenage tennis sensation, rolled Friday in her first match at the BNP Paribas Open.

Her 6-2, 6-4 win over qualifier Cristina Bucsa of Spain came in just an hour and 17 minutes inside Stadium 2 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Gauff, 18, will play again Sunday versus the winner of the Amanda Anisimova versus Linda Nosková match.

Gauff is one of 10 American women still in the draw. She is the second-highest ranked, after third-ranked Jessica Pegula, among the group.

Casper Ruud vs. Diego Schwartzman: Casper Ruud may be the No. 3 seed in the men’s draw of the BNP Paribas Open, but he wasn’t going to overlook his opponent in his opening match Friday.

“I lost to Diego (Schwartzman) here a couple of years ago, so it’s nice to get a little revenge,” Ruud said after a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 victory at Stadium 1.

Entering the match Friday, Ruud actually had lost five of eight matches against Schwartzman, the Argentinian player who has been ranked as high as seventh in the world. But that past record made no difference as Ruud easily moved forward to face qualifier Christian Garin, a 6-4, 6-0 upset winner of 29th-seed Yoshihito Nishioka.

“Diego’s a great player. I have lost to him many times,” Ruud said. “So you really need to be focused.”

Rudd said his goal was to play heavy balls to Schwartzman and to occasionally come to the net. The plan worked, with Ruud grabbing two breaks of Schwartzman’s serve in the first set and a key break to go up 3-2 in the second set.

Jessica Pegula vs. Camila Giorgi: Third-ranked Pegula, the top-ranked American playing at Indian Wells, overcame a difficult first set to beat Italy's Camila Giorgi, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, late Friday on Stadium Court. In the final match of the night that concluded at 11:57 p.m., Pegula quickly went down a break and lost the first set.

There were some tense moments, with Pegula placing her hands over her face in frustration while the crowd remained fairly quiet and appeared to be in shock. No American woman has won a title at Indian Wells since Serena Williams in 2001. Pegula is perhaps the American's best shot this year.

Into the second set, Pegula went up a break early and, like a switch had been flipped, asserted control over the match. She dominated the rest of the way.

Pegula will face Russia's Anastasia Potapova, the 26th seed, on Sunday.

Aryna Sabalenka vs. Evgeniya Rodina: The No. 2 seed on the women’s side, Sabalenka made a definite statement in her first-round match, winning on Stadium 2 6-2, 6-0 in just 65 minutes. Sabalenka dominated the match with her serve, scoring five aces and winning 80 percent of her first serve points.

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Sabalenka moves forward to take on Lesia Tsurenko, a qualifier who defeated No. 29 Donna Vekic on Friday.

Cameron Norrie vs. Tung-Lin Wu: Norrie, the 2021 BNP Paribas men’s singles champion, had little trouble with his opening match of this year on Stadium 3. The No. 10 seed in the tournament raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set against Wu, a qualifier for the main draw. Wu was more competitive in the second set before Norrie closed out a 6-2, 6-4 victory. One key to the win was Norrie winning 81 percent of his first serves compared to just 52 percent for Wu.

Jil Teichmann vs. Belinda Bencic: Bencic, the ninth seed in the women’s bracket, became the first top-10 woman to fall at Indian Wells this week. After rolling through the first set, Bencic struggled with her serve in losing to fellow Swiss player Teichmann 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 on the Stadium 2 court.

Bencic, who smiled and hugged Teichmann after the match, was successful on just 56 percent of her first serves and suffered four double faults in the match. Teichmann raced to a 5-1 lead in the third set before Bencic rallied a bit with a break of serve and a strong serviced game before falling.

Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Roberto Bautista Agut: One of the biggest and quickest upsets of the day came at Stadium 3, where Bautista Agut fell as the No. 22 seed in the event to Ruusuvuori 7-6 (5), 6-2.

The 59th-ranked player in the world, the Finnish Ruuruvuori turned the match in the first set tiebreaker, holding off Bautista Agut to win 7-5. Ruuruvuori then rolled in the second set to earn his first win over Bautista Agut in the duo’s second-ever match.

Petra Kvitova vs. Elisabeth Mandlik: Kvitova kept a streak of quick matches on Stadium 3 alive Friday with a 6-1, 7-5 victory. The No. 15 seed, a two-time Wimbledon winner, advances to take on Jelena Ostapenko, the No. 24 seed and a winner over Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 earlier in the day.

Friday's results

Men's Singles Round of 64

• Cristian Garin, Chile, def. Yoshihito Nishioka (29), Japan, 6-4, 6-0.

• Cameron Norrie (10), Britain, def. Tung-Lin Wu, Taiwan, 6-2, 6-4.

• Casper Ruud (3), Norway, def. Diego Schwartzman, Argentina, 6-2, 6-3.

• Ilya Ivashka, Belarus, def. Botic Van de Zandschulp (28), Netherlands, 7-5, 3-2, ret.

• Emil Ruusuvuori, Finland, def. Roberto Bautista Agut (22), Spain, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

• Jason Kubler, Australia, def. Grigor Dimitrov (21), Bulgaria, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0, ret.

• Jordan Thompson, Australia, def. Stefanos Tsitsipas (2), Greece, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 7-6 (5).

• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (23), Spain, def. Yibing Wu, China, 6-4, 6-1.

• Alexander Zverev (12), Germany, def. Pedro Cachin, Argentina, 6-3, 6-1.

• Alejandro Tabilo, Chile, def. Maxime Cressy (32), United States, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (13).

• Ugo Humbert, France, def. Denis Shapovalov (25), Canada, 7-5, 6-4.

• Karen Khachanov (13), Russia, def. Oscar Otte, Germany, 6-3, 6-3.

• Taro Daniel, Japan, def. Matteo Berrettini (20), Italy, 7-6 (5), 0-6, 6-3.

• Daniil Medvedev (5), Russia, def. Brandon Nakashima, United States, 6-4, 6-3.

• Frances Tiafoe (14), United States, def. Marcos Giron, United States, 6-2, 6-2.

• Andrey Rublev (6), Russia, def. Jiri Lehecka, Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-2.

Women's Singles Round of 64

• Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine, def. Donna Vekic (29), Croatia, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

• Jelena Ostapenko (24), Latvia, def. Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Belarus, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

• Jil Teichmann, Switzerland, def. Belinda Bencic (9), Switzerland, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

• Barbora Krejcikova (16), Czech Republic, def. Dayana Yastremska, Ukraine, 6-1, 6-2.

• Anhelina Kalinina (27), Ukraine, def. Linda Fruhvirtova, Czech Republic, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

• Veronika Kudermetova (11), Russia, def. Anna Blinkova, Russia, 6-3, 6-4.

• Aryna Sabalenka (2), Belarus, def. Evgeniya Rodina, Russia, 6-2, 6-0.

• Rebecca Peterson, Sweden, def. Zhang Shuai (22), China, 3-0, ret.

• Petra Kvitova (15), Czech Republic, def. Elizabeth Mandlik, United States, 6-1, 7-5.

• Anastasia Potapova (26), Russia, def. Wang Xiyu, China, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

• Maria Sakkari (7), Greece, def. Shelby Rogers, United States, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.

• Wang Xinyu, China, def. Ekaterina Alexandrova (18), Russia, 6-2, 6-3.

• Coco Gauff (6), United States, def. Cristina Bucsa, Spain, 6-2, 6-4.

• Karolina Pliskova (17), Czech Republic, def. Anna Kalinskaya, Russia, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.

• Linda Noskova, Czech Republic, def. Amanda Anisimova (31), United States, 7-6 (6), 6-3.

• Jessica Pegula (3), United States, def. Camila Giorgi, Italy, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Men's Doubles round of 32

• Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, Italy, def. Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal (8), Colombia, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 10-3.

• Michael Venus, New Zealand, and Jamie Murray, Britain, def. Marcel Granollers, Spain, and Horacio Zeballos (6), Argentina, 6-3, 6-4.

• John Isner and Jack Sock, United States, def. Jean-Julien Rojer, Netherlands, and Marcelo Arevalo-Gonzalez (3), El Salvador, 6-7 (6), 7-5, 10-7.

• Rohan Bopanna, India, and Matthew Ebden, Australia, def. David Vega Hernandez, Spain, and Rafael Matos, Brazil, 7-5, 3-6, 10-6.

• Austin Krajicek and Mackenzie McDonald, United States, def. Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata, Australia, 6-1, 6-3.

Women's Doubles Round of 32

• Nicole Melichar-Martinez, United States, and Ellen Perez (8), Australia, def. Yulia Putintseva, Kazakhstan, and Bianca Andreescu, Canada, 7-6 (3), 6-4.

• Magda Linette, Poland, and Caty McNally, United States, def. Monica Niculescu, Romania, and Alicja Rosolska, Poland, 6-3, 6-2.

• Danielle Collins and Peyton Stearns, United States, def. Kimberley Zimmermann, Belgium, and Anna Bondar, Hungary, 6-2, 6-2.

• Laura Siegemund, Germany, and Beatriz Haddad Maia, Brazil, def. Yana Sizikova, Russia, and Eri Hozumi, Japan, 6-4, 6-1.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: BNP Paribas Open: Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula secure wins at Indian Wells