{"id":28101,"date":"2026-03-09T11:14:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28101"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:14:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:14:38","slug":"big-names-shine-as-surprises-unfold-at-indian-wells-tennis-tournament","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/big-names-shine-as-surprises-unfold-at-indian-wells-tennis-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Big names shine as surprises unfold at Indian Wells Tennis Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Indian Wells Tennis Tournament in California saw big names shine and surprises unfold on Sunday, as Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner advanced to the round of 16.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">However, fourth seed Coco Gauff was forced to retire mid-match against Alex Eala, handing the young Filipino star a spot in the last 16.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Two time major champion Gauff, who has only retired from one match previously in her whole career, decided to withdraw early in the second set while trailing 2-6, love-2 and apologised to Eala.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">She was forced to call it quits due to persistent pain in her left elbow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The retirement of Gauff sends the 20-year-old Eala, who has become a celebrity in the Philippines thanks to wins over some of the sport&#8217;s biggest names, into the round of 16, where she will face Czech Linda Noskova.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">World number one Sabalenka had no such problems, she eased into the last 16 with a straight sets win over Romanian Jaqueline Cristian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Belarusian needed just 71 minutes to wrap up a 6-4 6-1 victory at the Women&#8217;s Tennis Association 1 000 event.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Up next for the Belrusian is a match against fellow four-time Grand Slam champion, Naomi Osaka of Japan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">And in the men&#8217;s singles, world number two Jannik Sinner eased into the next round of Association of Tennis Professionals 1 000 event, with a straight sets victory against Canadian Denis Shapovalov.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Sinner also needed just 71 minutes to claim a 6-3 6-2 win, and the second seed will next face Brazilian Joao Fonseca for a place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15058,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-28101","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Indian Wells Tennis Tournament","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28103,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28101\/revisions\/28103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}