Radwanska Survives; Sharapova into Fourth Round at Indian Wells

Agnieszka Radwanska survived a roller coaster of a match against Sorana Cirstea as Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova advanced into week two of the BNP Paribas Open

By Erik Gudris

(March 11th, 2013) -- Top seeds on the women's side advanced into the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. But that didn't mean it wasn't a struggle for them to enter week two of the Premier event.

No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova found herself locked in a messy error-filled first set against Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro before Sharapova secured a late break of serve to take the set 7-5. From there, Sharapova went on to close out a 7-5, 6-3 win.

Things were a lot more dramatic for No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska as she faced No. 27 seed Sorana Cirstea. Cirstea took the opener in a tiebreak but then saw her command of the match slip in the second set, partially due to Cirstea's complaint to the umpire that racquets she sent out to be restrung earlier in the first set came back with too loose of a tension.

Radwanksa took the second set and then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third. But Radwanska double faulted when serving for the match and soon enough Cirstea was almost level at 4-5 having broken Radwanska again to love. But Cirstea found herself down 0-40 in her next service game and a final error from the Romanian's racquet sealed the 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 win for Radwanska.

"She was playing very good tennis from the beginning to the end," Radwanska told WTA.com. "Every set was very tight, and I was getting a bit nervous at 5-1 in the third set when she started to play unbelievable tennis - she was hitting the ball so well. But the most important thing is I won the match in the end."

Other seeds who advanced included No. 5 seed Petra Kvitova, No. 6 seed Sara Errani and No. 9 seed Marion Bartoli who fell behind 0-4 in the opening set to Svetlana Kuznetsova before the Frenchwoman overcame the deficit and won 6-4, 6-3.

Seeds exiting the event included No. 12 Dominika Cibulkova and No. 14 seed Roberta Vinci.

(Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson/Corleve)