World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka opened her campaign at the ongoing Indian Wells Open 2026 on Friday, March 6, in the Round of 64. The Belarusian registered a dominant performance over Japan’s Himeno Sakatsume defeating her by sets of 6-4, 6-2. In another match, Coco Gauff emerged successful in winning her match in the Round of 64.
In the opening game, Sakatsume dropped her serve experiencing the pressure but went on to break four points in the fifth. Sabalenka powered through in the set and took the win by 6-4. Meanwhile, in the second set, Sakatsume held the serve in the opening minutes that got Sabalenka to win by five straight games leading to the win without a break point.
During the post-match interview, Sabalenka shared her views on the performance and credited her fiance’s support Georgios Frangulis who kept cheering on her. The two got engaged recently and Sabalenka surprised her fans by showing off her beautiful diamond ring.
“I haven’t played for a while after the Australian Open, and I’m happy with the performance today,” she said.
Jokingly she commented by saying that the jewel piece could help her in distracting her opponents during the match. “I was pretty confident wearing this ring. It feels comfy, it feels shiny. I hope that my opponent will get distracted with this diamond and it’s going to benefit me,” she added
Menahwile, women’s singles fourth seed Coco Gauff rallied in her two-set victory over qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova by 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). No. 88 Rakhimova, ranked 88th, had wasted one set point in the second game that led Gauff to lead by 5-4 in the tiebreaker followed by adding three more points in the last set.
Gauff said, “I felt like if I could get into the tiebreaker, I feel like I would have a pretty good tiebreak record. I knew the odds were in my favor when the tiebreaker started.”
