Mboko and Raducanu win opening seeded matches at Indian Wells

Victoria Mboko and Emma Raducanu advanced to the Indian Wells third round with straight-sets victories. Raducanu defeated Anastasia Zakharova 6–1, 6–3 in eighty-two minutes, while Mboko beat Kimberly Birrell 6–4, 7–6(5) after trailing 3–1 in both sets.

Raducanu landed seventy-two percent of first serves and won seventy-five percent of those points. She lost serve only while trying to finish at 5–2 in the second, then immediately broke again to close the match against the qualifier.

Mboko struck twenty-four winners, twice Birrell’s total, in her first match as a top-ten player. Three second-set double faults on break points complicated the Canadian’s progress, but she forced a tiebreak and won its final two points to secure victory.