By Chris Oddo | Friday March 11, 2016

Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska narrowly avoided an early departure from the BNP Paribas Open by reeling off five consecutive games in the final set to defeat Dominika Cibulkova, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Radwanska improved to 7-3 lifetime against the 57th-ranked Slovakian by saving a match point while serving at 2-5 in the final set. Cibulkova netted a forehand return on the point and would never get another look from a very stingy Radwanska down the stretch.

Radwanska proceeded to lock things down from the baseline to finish off her victory. She broke for 6-5 with a clean backhand down-the-line return winner and clinched the comeback when Cibulkova made back-to-back errors from 30-all in the final game.

Radwanska moves on to face 32nd-seeded Monica Niculescu in the third round. The Pole owns the 2-1 lifetime edge over Niculescu, including a straight-sets victory last month in Doha.

Other winners on a busy Friday in the desert were 30th-seeded Ekaterina Makarova (d. Hradecka), 19th-seeded Jelena Jankovic (d. Witthoeft), CoCo Vandeweghe (d. [16] Kuznetsova), Kateryna Bondarenko (d. [24] Pavlyuchenkova), Lesia Tsurenko (d. [15] Errani) and Yulia Putintseva (d. [27] Mladenovic).

8th-seeded Petra Kvitova also won a close one, taking down Danka Kovinic, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5).