INDIAN WELLS, Mar 12 (Agencies): Naomi Osaka rolled past Danielle Collins 6-4, 6-2 in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday night, keeping the world's No. 1 player on track to defend her title.
Collins struggled with her serve throughout the match, committing seven double faults and connecting on just 47 per cent of her first serves.
Venus Williams is turning back her own clock, moving into the fourth round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over qualifier Christina McHale.
Williams is seeking her 50th career WTA Tour title in the desert, where she has never won the event. And at 38, she's showing vintage form.
Kvitova had made the finals in two of her first three tournaments this year.
Karolina Pliskova eased past qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure 6-3, 6-2. No. 8 Angelique
Kerber outlasted qualifier Natalia Vikhlyantseva 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 and No. 9 Aryna Sabalenka defeated 24th-seeded Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 7-5.
On the men's side, No. 3 Alexander Zverev lost to German countryman Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-1.
Playing just his third tournament of the year, Zverev said he's been sick for a week.
Meanwhile, Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka battled Felix Auger-Aliassime and his own emotions through three topsy-turvy sets Monday to grab a 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) victory in the ATP Indian Wells Masters.
In another match, ailing world number three Alexander Zverev crashed out of the ATP Indian Wells Masters, where Novak Djokovic's third round match was suspended by rain with one game completed.
Jan-Lennard Struff, ranked 55th in the world, notched his first victory over Zverev in five tries, breaking him once in the first set and three times in the second for a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
World number one Novak Djokovic, playing his first tournament since grabbing a record seventh Australian Open title in January, completed just one game against unseeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber before rain swept across the California desert.
