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Kvitova rallies for 14th straight match win at Indian Wells

Icon Sportswire / Getty

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) Petra Kvitova rallied to beat Yulia Putintseva 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday for her 14th consecutive match victory.

The two-time Wimbledon champion overcame 78 unforced errors and 18 double faults in the 3-hour, 17-minute slugfest. Putintseva smashed her racket on the court on Kvitova's second match point.

Kvitova recently returned to the top 10 for the first time since a December 2016 home invasion and knife attack that caused tendon and nerve damage and required surgery to her left serving hand.

She won the Qatar Open last month and has defeated six top-10 players this year.

Other second-round winners Friday were top-seeded Simona Halep, who defeated Kristyna Pliskova 6-4, 6-4; No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova, 7-6 (4), 6-1 over Irina-Camelia Begu; No. 6 Jelena Ostapenko, who defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; No. 17 CoCo Vandeweghe, who beat Kaia Kanepi 6-0, 7-6 (6); Kristina Mladenovic, who beat Samantha Stosur 7-5, 7-5; and Naomi Osaka, who defeated Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-2.

Nick Kyrgios withdrew Friday, citing a lingering elbow injury that first occurred in Australia's Davis Cup loss in February. He hasn't played in an ATP match since losing to Grigor Dimitrov at the Australian Open. Last year, Kyrgios upset Novak Djokovic in the fourth round before withdrawing from his match against Roger Federer with what was believed to be food poisoning.

Kyrgios, the 20th seed, was to play a second-round match Saturday against Russia's Daniil Medvedev, but will be replaced by lucky loser Matteo Berrettini.

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More AP tennis coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis

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