World No. 5 Keys stretches her personal winning streak to 13 and improves to 15-1 on the season with her victory. 

Were there nerves? Some, said Keys, but not enough to derail her. 

“I think there is obviously a little bit of extra nerves, and that’s just kind of the reality of the situation right now,” she told reporters a few hours after her win. “But I think, being honest with myself and just knowing that that’s going to be there, I was able to expect it and kind of know how to navigate that.”

Sabalenka has the hunger again 

Aryna Sabalenka is feeling refreshed in the California desert and it showed on Saturday night as the World No. 1 battled past rising American McCartney Kessler 7-6(4), 6-3 to set a third-round clash with Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti. 

“She played incredible tennis,” 2023 runner-up Sabalenka said of 25-year-old Kessler. “I’d say she handled the pressure pretty well. It was a great match, and I am just super happy to win this tough second round.”

Sabalenka says she is feeling hungry for the fight once again, after recovering emotionally from her loss to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final. She lost two of three matches in the Middle East in Dubai. 

“I’m hungrier than I was in the Middle East,” she said. “I’d say that the final in Australia was really heartbreaking. It was very difficult to recover after that one, and [in the] Middle East I was kind of like, in my thoughts, I was trying to understand. I was always thinking about that match.

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