Tennis: Halep, Pliskova Advance, Muguruza Suffers Shock Defeat

World number one Simona Halep and fifth seed Karolina Pliskova eased through their WTA Indian Wells openers on Friday but reigning Wimbledon champ Garbine Muguruza bit the dust in the California desert.

Indian Wells, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Mar, 2018 ) :World number one Simona Halep and fifth seed Karolina Pliskova eased through their WTA Indian Wells openers on Friday but reigning Wimbledon champ Garbine Muguruza bit the dust in the California desert.

Halep beat Karolina's sister Kristyna Pliskova 6-4, 6-4 while Karolina eased past Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 to reach the third round of the combined WTA/ATP hardcourt tournament. Muguruza became the first major casualty of the event, suffering a shock 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 defeat to world number 100 Sachia Vickery.

"It slipped away a little bit from me," said Muguruza. "I'm going to learn a lot from this match. I'm going to watch it and I'm going to see what went wrong." Muguruza, who was seeded third here, was named WTA player of the year last year after winning titles in Wimbledon and Cincinnati.

The 24-year-old also reached number one in the world in September and was ranked third heading into Indian Wells. This the Spaniard's first loss to a player ranked in the 100s since she was beaten by Jana Cepelova (124) at Wimbledon in 2016.