ATX Open champion Jessica Pegula made a winning start to her BNP Paribas Open campaign with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Poland's Magda Linette on Friday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Indian Wells: Draws | Scores | Order of play

In cool and windy conditions inside Stadium 1, the No. 4 seed, picked up a sixth straight win -- having captured her first title of 2025 in Austin last week -- and a milestone 80th at WTA 1000 level in 1 hour and 15 minutes. She is now 3-0 all-time against Linette.

Pegula assessed that her performance "wasn't the prettiest," in light of the elements, "but I just had to accept that as a challenge."

"I was able to handle the side with the wind pretty well, and really take advantage of using that for my serve," she added, "and then just being a little gritty, digging out some tough points on the side that was against the wind. It was just a few point here and there, especially in the first."

Read on for more top headlines from Pegula's win, marking her longest unbeaten run since the six straight wins she posted at last year's US Open en route to her first major final.

Pegula maintains Linette mastery: In those three meetings against the Polish No. 2, Pegula hasn't lost a set. She did not come close inside Stadium 1 at Indian Wells, as Linette led only once on the scoreboard -- and struggled to control the ball in the wind with 37 unforced errors to just 12 winners. In the opener, the score was only tied twice -- the last of which came as Linette won back-to-back games from 3-1 down in the first set. 

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Set two saw Pegula rip off five consecutive games after Linette saved two break points to hold serve at the start. The Pole stopped the run with a hold at deuce in the seventh game, but a tidy love hold neatly put the American through to Round 3, where she will face China's Wang Xinyu, who upset No. 26 seed Jelena Ostapenko.

Anything further is a bonus: Last year in Indian Wells, Pegula lost her first match to Anna Blinkova -- meaning that she's assured of picking up ranking points no matter how deep she advances in the draw. Though hard courts are typically a happy hunting ground for Pegula, she has only reached the quarterfinals in Palm Springs on one occasion: in 2021.

Her win against Linette pushed her career main-draw record at the tournament to over .500 at 7-6. 

A role reversal up next: After facing someone she's never lost to, Pegula will next face someone she's never beaten. Wang is 2-0 against Pegula all-time, having upset her twice last year at Wimbledon and in Wuhan.