Aryna Sabalenka made it to the third round of the Indian Wells Masters Cup following her hard-fought win against 64th-ranked American outsider, Peyton Stearns. The nail-biting thriller saw Sabalenka being pushed to her absolute limits.

Stearns on the other hand, produced one of her best performances to date and almost clinched the win in what is touted as the toughest opener in the California desert. Talking about the American’s performance, Sabalenka lauded her in the post-match interview.

Aryna Sabalenka On Peyton Stearns on ‘playing really great tennis’

In a battle for the ages, Aryna Sabalenka, who was coming off a first-match exit in the Dubai Open, struggled to edge past Stearns. However, the Belarusian was immensely impressed by the American’s game and when asked about Streans’ performance, Sabalenka was in awe, “Well, I was watching her matches and it’s not like it surprised me. I knew what to expect. Yeah, she’s hitting the ball really great. Really heavy balls.” She further talked about Stearns’ improvements and said that“the rhythm of our her ball is more like man rhythm.

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“It’s more spin. It’s not going flat. It’s heavy, kind of like hitting a racquet off.” She continued, “So she’s playing really great tennis, and her forehand, it’s unbelievable. Unbelievable shot. But like me, I practice a lot with my hitting partner, so I used to this kind of, like, rhythm to play against. So I’m happy I was able to put this pressure back on her.”

“But, yeah, she’s hitting really great, great balls,” she added. Stearns who had struggled for a couple of months before, had previously expressed her desire to hit more aggressively and commit more to her shots.

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The American took the first set to a tiebreaker and secured it. But let’s have a look at what led to Sabalenka praising  Stearns.

Aryna Sabalenka – ‘I was fighting today like a tiger”

Sensing the moment’s urgency, the Australian Open Champion hit back and broke Stearn twice to level things up in the second set. However, Stearns was in no mood to be rag-dolled by the Tiger and fought hard in the decider, serving for the match at 5-4 to produce the biggest upset of her career. The American made it to four match points in the tenth game but Sabalenka denied her by saving all of them.

The Belarussian secured a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker but Stearns, maintaining her composure won the next three points. Sabalenka, however, displayed championship mettle and finally prevailed with a 6-7(2), 6-2, 7-6(6), hard-fought win over the American. The triumphant tiger let out a victory roar at the end of 2 hours and 55 mins!

“I think I was right when I did this tattoo of a tiger. I was fighting today like a tiger,” She said in the on-court interview. Sabalenka, who finished as the runner-up in the California desert last year will now face Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion from Britain in their first-ever match-up.