Indian Wells: Friday's Order of Play and Match Points

MATCH POINTS

No.1 seed Simona Halep is the only former champion remaining in the top half of the draw. The Romanian, winner here in 2015, defeated Kristyna Pliskova in their only meeting to date, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of Madrid last year.

No.6 seed Jelena Ostapenko faces Belinda Bencic in the first senior meeting between the 20-year-olds. Erstwhile junior rivals, the pair have been playing each other since their U14 days: their first meeting was in the semifinals of Les Petits As in 2011, which eventual champion Ostapenko took 6-1, 6-4. At U18 level, they split meetings, Bencic triumphing 1-6 6-4, 6-2 on clay in Prague in 2011 and Ostapenko capturing their most recent encounter 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Repentigny on hard courts the following year.

Three-time Indian Wells runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova (2007-08, 2017) will step on court for the first time in over five months today following wrist surgery. The Russian, whose last match was a three-set loss to Lara Arruabarrena in Beijing last October, will face hard-hitting 19-year-old Aryna Sabalenka, who will be seeking her second career Top 20 win.

No.9 seed Petra Kvitova will seek to equal the longest winning streak of her career today against Yulia Putintseva. The Czech is currently riding a 13-match streak following titles in St. Petersburg and Doha, sandwiching two winning rubbers in Fed Cup; her record is 14 consecutive wins, set over 2011-12 when she was victorious in Linz, the WTA Finals, the Fed Cup final and Sydney. For her part, Putintseva will be seeking the fifth Top 10 victory of her career, and first since defeating Dominika Cibulkova in the St. Petersburg semifinals last year.

No.23 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova takes on the youngest player in the draw, 16-year-old Amanda Anisimova, today. The Russian was herself once a teenage breakout star in Indian Wells: as a 17-year-old in 2009, she scored her maiden Top 10 win over Jelena Jankovic and made it all the way to the semifinals. However, Pavlyuchenkova would not progress past the third round again until her quarterfinal run last year.

Three seeds in action today have never beaten their unseeded opponent. No.22 Elise Mertens lost her sole meeting against Wang Qiang 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the ITF $50,000 event in Quanzhou in 2016; No.17 CoCo Vandeweghe was heavily defeated by Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-2 in their only encounter, in the second round of Tokyo in 2011; and No.15 Kristina Mladenovic is 0-4 against Samantha Stosur in a rivalry stretching back to 2013.

Ashleigh Barty will make her Indian Wells debut today as the No.16 seed. This week is the Australian's one-year anniversary of breaking the Top 100 for the first time - she was ranked too low even to enter qualifying last year. Barty is 1-0 against her first opponent, Maria Sakkari, whom she beat 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Taipei 125K in 2016.

No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova will take on Irina-Camelia Begu in a rematch of their third-round encounter here last year, won by the Czech 6-4, 7-6(2). In their only other meeting to date, in Tokyo in 2011, Begu was a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victor.

ORDER OF PLAY

All courts start 11am

STADIUM 1
Following two ATP matches
[1] Simona HALEP (ROU) vs Kristyna PLISKOVA (CZE) 

Not before 7pm
[3] Garbiñe MUGURUZA (ESP) vs [Q] Sachia VICKERY (USA) 

STADIUM 2
[9] Petra KVITOVA (CZE) vs Yulia PUTINTSEVA (KAZ) 
[17] CoCo VANDEWEGHE (USA) vs Kaia KANEPI (EST) 

STADIUM 3
Belinda BENCIC (SUI) vs [6] Jelena OSTAPENKO (LAT) 
Irina-Camelia BEGU (ROU) vs [5] Karolina PLISKOVA (CZE) 

STADIUM 4
[11] Johanna KONTA (GBR) vs Marketa VONDROUSOVA (CZE) 
Following two ATP matches  
[WC] Amanda ANISIMOVA (USA) vs [23] Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) 

STADIUM 5
Following two ATP matches 
[32] ZHANG Shuai (CHN) vs [Q] Sofia KENIN (USA) 
[WC] Caroline DOLEHIDE (USA) vs [30] Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK) 

STADIUM 6
Aryna SABALENKA (BLR) vs [19] Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS) 
Naomi OSAKA (JPN) vs [31] Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) 
[WC] Victoria AZARENKA (BLR) / Aryna SABALENKA (BLR) vs [WC] Eugenie BOUCHARD (CAN) / Sloane STEPHENS (USA) 

STADIUM 7
Samantha STOSUR (AUS) vs [14] Kristina MLADENOVIC (FRA) 
Maria SAKKARI (GRE) vs [16] Ashleigh BARTY (AUS) 

STADIUM 8
[8] Andreja KLEPAC (SLO) / María José MARTÍNEZ SÁNCHEZ (ESP) vs Kirsten FLIPKENS (BEL) / Nina STOJANOVIC (SRB) 
[6] Barbora KREJCIKOVA (CZE) / Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE) vs Mihaela BUZARNESCU (ROU) / Alizé CORNET (FRA) 
[1] Ekaterina MAKAROVA (RUS) / Elena VESNINA (RUS) vs Daria GAVRILOVA (AUS) / Samantha STOSUR (AUS)

STADIUM 9
[22] Elise MERTENS (BEL) vs WANG Qiang (CHN) 
[25] Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) vs Petra MARTIC (CRO)