INDIAN WELLS, Californa: Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, on the comeback trail seven months after giving birth to a son, was ousted in the first round at Indian Wells on Wednesday by France’s 70th-ranked Varvara Gracheva.
The Czech, who welcomed son Petr last July, was playing her second tournament since her return from an 18-month maternity leave but remains in search of her first match win.
Wednesday’s match looked a lot like her loss to Jodie Burrage in Austin last week, with Kvitova unable to close it out after pocketing the first set.
Gracheva, 24, was full of admiration for her 34-year-old opponent, who lifted the trophy at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014.
“If you let me step back a little bit, I really want to congratulate her,” Gracheva said. “Because she had a child quite recently, and I’m so happy that she now has the role of a mother and a tennis player, which is very demanding. It’s very inspiring for sports, athletes, women — it’s just amazing.”
All 32 men’s and women’s seeds have first round byes in this combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 tournament, the first leg of the US hard court “Sunshine Double” that will conclude in Miami.
Gracheva lined up a second-round meeting with ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who ousted three Grand Slam winners on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion in Dubai last month.
Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka, who returned from a 15-month break last year after giving birth to daughter Shai in 2023, headlines the night session taking on Colombian Camila Osorio.
Japan’s Osaka, who won her first WTA title at Indian Wells in 2018, hasn’t played since the Australian Open, where she retired from her third-round match with an abdominal strain.
In other early matches, French veteran Caroline Garcia beat US wild card Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-4 to line up a second-round meeting with second-seeded defending champion Iga Swiatek.
Poland’s Swiatek, who also lifted the trophy in the California desert in 2022, is vying to become the only woman besides Martina Navratilova in 1990-91 to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles, and the first woman to win more than two.
In men’s action, China’s Bu Yunchaokete defeated American Nishesh Basavareddy 7-5, 6-4 to book a second-round match against Russian fifth seed Daniil Medvedev, the runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz the past two years.
Alcaraz is seeded second as he chases a rare three-peat. Germany’s Alexander Zverev is the top seed in a men’s field that is missing world No. 1 Jannik Sinner as he serves a three-month drugs ban but that includes Serbian star Novak Djokovic — chasing a record sixth title.
Japanese veteran Kei Nishikori, who revealed during the Australian Open that he almost quit tennis last year after lengthy battles with injury, defeated Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3) to line up a second-round match against 18th-seeded Ugo Humbert of France.
Nishikori was treated for a leg injury in the third set and then soldiered through cramp to close out the victory.
“It was not easy,” Nishikori said. “In the third set I was cramping pretty badly, but somehow I came back and won, so a very good match.”
In other men’s first-round action, Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild saved a pair of match points on the way to a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) victory over France’s Alexandre Muller.
