The US moved two women and four men into the second round on Thursday as the BNP Paribas Open moves towards its first weekend. The women start the second round on Friday with the seeded players beginning competition. Both Madison Keys and Lauren Davis will be taking on top 15 players with Davis getting the opportunity for a top five upset. On the men’s side four more American will wrap up the first round though only one of them is in the world’s top 100 right now.
Women’s Singles

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Two American women moved into the second round in Thursday’s action but it might not be the two you expected. The two highest ranked Americans playing on Thursday lost. Bethanie Mattek-Sands was a 3-6, 5-7 loser to Caroline Garcia while Vania King lost 0-6, 6-3, 2-6 to Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova. The two American who moved on were Taylor Towsend and Coco Vandeweghe, who looked really good in a 6-4, 6-0 win over Alexandra Cadantu.
Townsend is just 17-years-old and has been ranked as the #1 junior girls player in the world. She took on Karin Knapp, the Italian who beat both Christina McHale and Alison Riske in the Fed Cup and is ranked in the top 50, and beat her soundly 7-6 (1), 6-1. It’s certainly a statement from Townsend who is going to become a bigger and bigger name over the next few years in the world of US tennis. She’ll take on another Italian, Flavia Pennetta, in the second round on Saturday.
The two biggest matches for Americans in Friday’s women’s second round action will be Madison Keys taking on #13 Roberta Vinci and Lauren Davis taking on #3 Victoria Azarenka. Keys certainly would seem to have a better chance but Davis has the chance for the bigger noise-making upset.
Women’s Doubles

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The two doubles teams to start play on Thursday both lost. Madison Keys/Alison Riske lost to #5 Cara Black/Sania Mirza 2-6, 4-6 while Liezel Huber/Chan Hao-ching (Chinese Taipei) lost to #2 Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina. There might be an easier matchup for Americans on Friday as only one of the matchups involves a seeded team, Vania King/Galina Voskoboeva (Kazakhstan) taking on #8 Lucie Hradecka/Jie Zheng.
There will also be an American-on-American first round battle as Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears take on Lisa Raymond/Shuai Zhang (China). These are the two highest ranked American teams left in the field so the winner of that could have the best chance to go deep in the tournament.
Men’s Singles

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Four American men moved into the second round on Thursday, but considering three of them took out fellow Yanks to get there perhaps that isn’t surprising. Sam Querrey wasn’t challenged in a 6-3, 6-3 win over Alex Kuznetsov. The other two matches went the three sets with Donald Young starting well but falling apart late in a 6-4, 1-6, 2-6 loss to Michael Russell and Tim Smyczek weathering a bad set for a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over Jack Sock.
The four Americans in action on Friday are mostly lower ranked with three of the four ranked 119 or worse. Of those Rajeev Ram might have the best chance to advance as he takes on another sub-125 player in Horacio Zeballos. The matchup between Bradley Kahn and Marinko Matosevic should aslo be good as the two players are both ranked in the 60s.
Broadcasting Information:
Tennis Channel will be broadcasting the tournament from 2 PM – 2 AM ET while ESPN3.com has streams of the play at three stadiums that will include 6 of the 8 singles matches involving the US on Thursday including all of the men’s matches.
Schedule:
- March 7th – Tennis Channel – 2 PM-2 AM ET
- Men’s First Round
- Approx. 4 PM ET – Bradley Klahn vs. Marinko Matosevic – Stadium 1 – ESPN3.com – First ever meeting
- Approx. 6 PM ET – Steve Johnson vs. Roberto Bautista-Agut – Stadium 1 – ESPN3.com – First ever meeting
- Approx. 6 PM ET – Rajeev Ram vs. Horacio Zeballos – Stadium 3 – ESPN3.com – First ever meeting
- Approx. 10 PM ET – Daniel Kosakowski vs. Dominic Thiem – Stadium 2 – ESPN3.com – First ever meeting
- Women’s Second Round
- 2 PM ET – Shelby Rogers vs. #31 Magdalena Rybarikova – Rybarikova leads 1-0 all-time
- 2 PM ET – Varvara Lepchenko vs. #29 Daniela Hantuchova – Hantuchova leads 1-0 all-time
- Approx. 6 PM ET – Madison Keys vs. #13 Roberta Vinci – Stadium 2 – ESPN3.com – Vinci leads 1-0 all-time
- Approx. 10 PM ET – Lauren Davis vs. #3 Victoria Azarenka – Stadium 1 – ESPN3.com – First ever meeting
- Women’s Doubles First Round
- Approx. 6 PM ET – Sloane Stephens/Andrea Petkovic (Germany) vs. Vera Dushevina/Mirjana Lucic-Baroni – First ever meeting
- Approx. 8 PM ET – Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears vs. Lisa Raymond/Shuai Zhang (China) – First ever meeting
- Approx. 8 PM ET – Vania King/Galina Voskoboeva (Kazakhstan) vs. #8 Lucie Hradecka/Jie Zheng – First ever meeting
- Approx. 8 PM ET – Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Nadia Petrova (Russia) vs. Alisa Kleybanova/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – First ever meeting