Indian Wells Masters: Belinda Bencic notches 1st tour win of 2017, Heather Watson beats Nicole Gibbs

Indian Wells: Britain’s Heather Watson beat American Nicole Gibbs 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Watson will face No 11 Johanna Konta in the second round.

Former No 1 Martina Hingis and double partner Yung-Jan Chan beat Raquel Atawo and Yifan Xu 6-1, 6-4.

China’s Qiang Wang, ranked No 60, won one of the tightest matches of the day, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 over Ukraine’ Kateryna Bondarenko. Wang will play No 10 Elina Svitolina in the next round.

Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig would have faced Serena Williams after beating American Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-2, but Williams pulled out Tuesday because of knee issues. Puig will face No 3 Karolina Pliskova.

Karolina’s sister Krystina knocked out wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-0, 6-3 in her first round. She next faces upcoming teenager Daria Kastakina.

Belinda Bencic’s looked back in form on Wednesday as she defeated Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the second round. This was the Swiss teenagers’ first WTA main draw win of 2017.

Sweden’s Elias Ymer may have had the upset of the day with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in men’s qualifying play. Ymer is No 158 in the ATP ranking, and Nishioka 70th.

With inputs from AP