Under the lights at Indian Wells on Friday night, amanda anisimova turned a tense opening into a one-sided finish: after dropping a topsy-turvy first set, she surged to a 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Anna Blinkova in one hour, 39 minutes to reach the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
What happened in Amanda Anisimova’s match against Anna Blinkova?
Sixth-seeded Amanda Anisimova trailed after a first set that featured seven breaks of serve, with Blinkova taking the opener 7-5. The match shifted sharply thereafter as Anisimova recovered and dominated the next two sets, winning the final nine games to close out the victory. The result ended a three-match losing streak for Anisimova at Indian Wells and improved her head-to-head record against Blinkova to 2-0. Blinkova entered the match ranked No. 94 in the world.
How do the numbers explain the turnaround?
Both players landed similar percentages of first serves, but the difference showed up in point conversion. Anisimova won a higher share of points on both first and second serves — 69. 2% on first-serve points and 41. 7% on second-serve points — compared with Blinkova’s 52. 1% and 17. 4%, respectively. Those margins translated into the decisive swing across sets two and three, as Anisimova tightened her backhand and finished emphatically on hard courts at the BNP Paribas Open.
What comes next: Raducanu awaits and what Anisimova must do
The win sets up a third-round meeting with Emma Raducanu, who advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Anastasia Zakharova in another second-round match. Raducanu holds a 2-1 career edge in matches against Anisimova, with all meetings occurring on hard courts in 2025. To match her best Indian Wells result — reaching the round of 16 in her 2018 main-draw debut, when she fell to Karolina Pliskova — Anisimova will need to defeat Raducanu in their next clash. The American will face the Brit after the momentum of her comeback win and with clear statistical advantages to build on.
On a broader level, Anisimova’s recovery from a shaky start to a commanding finish illustrates a familiar pattern at this event: early swings can belie the control a higher-seeded player asserts once rhythm and serve percentages align. The sixth seed’s performance in the final two sets provides a tangible template she can aim to replicate against Raducanu in the fight to reach the round of 16.
Back at the court where the first set felt like a coin flip, the final game left no doubt. The lights that watched Anisimova wobble early also saw her close with force, a reminder that momentum in Indian Wells can shift fast and decisively. As she prepares for her match with Raducanu, the question is whether that late-session certainty will carry her beyond a familiar hurdle and deeper into the BNP Paribas Open.
