Sinner edges into Indian Wells quarters; Sabalenka too hot for Osaka

March 10 : World number two Jannik Sinner survived a stern test from Joao Fonseca on Tuesday to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals, while women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka eased past 16th seed Naomi Osaka 6-2 6-4 to progress to the women's last eight.

Sinner was pushed hard by the 19-year-old Brazilian, trailing 6-3 in the first set before rallying to close out the match 7-6(6) 7-6(4).

"I am very happy winning this match," Sinner said.

"Joao is an incredible talent. He was serving really well. I was trying to be as aggressive as possible and that was the key to get through against the incredible talent."

The Italian will now meet the home favourite Learner Tien on Friday for a place in the last four.

"I feel he is a very consistent player and I am very happy to face him again. He has improved a lot since the last time we met," Sinner said of his American opponent.

DOMINANT WIN FOR SABALENKA

Meanwhile, in the first meeting between the two four-time Grand Slam champions since 2018 - when Osaka beat Sabalenka at the U.S. Open en route to her maiden major title - the Belarusian's power proved too much for the former world No. 1 on Tuesday.

"Yeah that's crazy, for so many years we only played once. I'm pretty sure we are playing many more matches, she's coming back playing great tennis," Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. "I'm pretty happy for the result today, much better than last time."

Osaka began confidently with a strong opening service game, but top seed Sabalenka soon found her rhythm and capitalised on a brief dip from the Japanese, breaking for 2-1 after two double faults.

The Belarusian tightened her grip with a barrage of powerful backhands to lead 5-2, then served out the set comfortably with an ace.

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