Medvedev masters McDonald again in Indian Wells

No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev, foreground, serves to Mackenzie
McDonald under the lights in 16,100-seat Stadium 1 in Indian
Wells on Saturday night. Photo by Paul Bauman

   INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Daniil Medvedev, seeded first and ranked second, continued his mastery of Mackenzie McDonald on Saturday night with a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open.

   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Medvedev, who won his first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open last month, has won all 13 sets in six career matches against the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald, ranked No. 57. They met for the third time this year and the second time in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open.

   McDonald, 26, was born in Berkeley, Calif., grew up in neighboring Piedmont and starred at UCLA, a two-hour drive west of Indian Wells. 

   In the first featured match of the night in 16,100-seat Stadium 1, Medvedev won 82 percent of the points on his first serve (23 of 28) and 74 percent on his second delivery (14 of 19) and did not face a break point.

   Medvedev, 25, has never advanced past the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

   "I'm actually really pleased, because usually I haven't played well in Indian Wells, and I haven't been playing that well in practices before (the tournament)," Medvedev, who has won 17 of his last 18 matches, said in an on-court interview. "(I'm) really happy with my performance. That's the most important (thing), no matter how I played before the tournament."

   On the women's side, Mayar Sherif (Fresno State, 2015-16) of Egypt made repeated errors in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to lucky loser Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in the second round.

   Since losing in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics in July, Sherif became the first Egyptian to reach a WTA final (losing to Andrea Petkovic of Germany on clay in Cluj-Napoca, Romania), reached the final of a $60,000 clay-court tournament in Gran Canaria, Spain, qualified for the U.S. Open (falling in the first round to Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine) and won a $115,000 clay-court tourney in Karlsruhe, Germany.

   Also today, No. 3 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan reached the doubles quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Americans Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula. Shibahara, 23, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and also starred at UCLA.

   USTA Pro Circuit — Unseeded Catherine Harrison, a former UCLA All-American from Germantown, Tenn., in the Memphis area, outlasted No. 3 seed Katie Swan of Great Britain 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals of the $25,000 Team Ascension Women's Pro Open in Redding, Calif.

   Harrison is set to meet No. 6 seed Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia on Sunday at 1 p.m. Jakupovic topped No. 4 seed Lu Jia-Jing of China 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

   In the doubles final, No. 4 seeds Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden and Swan beat No. 3 seeds Jakupovic and Lu 6-3, 1-6 [10-3]. Lu also lost in the doubles final of last week's $60,000 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger with Liang En-Shuo of Chinese Taipei.