Wednesday kicked off main draw action at the BNP Paribas Open, with 16 women’s singles matches taking place across eight courts. 

Scroll down for all the details on a busy Day 1… 

Osorio Introduces Herself to Tennis Paradise, Stuns Osaka 

Camila Osorio introduced herself – literally – to the fans at Tennis Paradise on Wednesday night. 

“First of all, good evening everyone, I’m Camila Osorio,” she said to the Stadium 1 crowd at the onset of her post-victory interview with a chuckle. 

In reality, she needed no introduction. The former World No.33 had just put forth an inspired, gritty effort to defeat four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, 6-4, 6-4, and become the first Colombian woman to ever earn a victory over a former top-ranked player. 

“It’s crazy for me,” she said. “It’s a dream come true. I really wanted to play on this court. I was excited and looking forward to playing a champion like Naomi, I can’t believe I won.” 

It was a disappointing loss for Osaka, who started the year with a run to the Auckland final – her first WTA title match since 2022 – but fell prey to an abdominal strain that forced her out of said final and hurt her performance at the Australian Open, where she retired from her third-round loss to Belinda Bencic. 

Playing in her first match since January, Osaka was ultimately undone by a combination of Osorio’s all-court counterpunching, and too many self-inflicted errors.

Osaka was broken three times from her nine service games, and committed 50 unforced errors on the evening. 

“I don't think it was too good on my end, but I'm really honestly just happy that they let me play on Stadium 1 again, and it was just really good to get the experience to play another night match,” an upbeat Osaka told reporters in her post-match press conference.

The 27-year-old says that her injury is completely healed, but added that she felt she lacked the time to get her game in top shape, having just recently returned to the practice court.  

“Firstly, I'm not injured. I feel really good, which is, I guess, a positive to take out of this,” she said. “It just feels like a little bump in the road. I'll be back in Miami, and hopefully I'll have way more serve practice under my belt and things like that.”

Osaka saved a match point while serving at 3-5 in the second set, but could not keep Osorio from closing out the contest on serve. The World No. 53 saved three break points in the game and converted her second match point to close out her win in one hour and 31 minutes. 

“I was really enjoying the atmosphere, and I think that helped me a lot,” Osorio said with a smile. “I was just trying to give a good show.” 

Mission accomplished for the two-time WTA title winner, who will face Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the second round. 

In other first-round action on Wednesday, two-time champion Victoria Azarenka came through with a 6-4, 7-6(7) win over American qualifier Clervie Ngounoue. The 2012 and 2016 champion notched her 35th career win at Indian Wells, which places her fourth on the all-time women’s singles win list.

Azarenka will face China’s Zheng Qinwen next.

Kvitova’s return to the desert is short-lived 

Don’t let the ranking fool you. 

Petra Kvitova entered her 13th career appearance at Indian Wells with the number 1448 next to her name, but the former World No. 2 is a two-time major champion and a three-time quarterfinalist here in the desert. 

The 34-year-old Czech is back on tour, just two matches into her comeback after a 17-month hiatus that saw her give birth to her first child, a baby boy named Petr, in July of 2024. 

Kvitova came close to notching her first win since October of 2023, but ultimately fell short to France’s Varvara Gracheva, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. 

“I really want to congratulate her,” said Gracheva on court after the match. “She had a child quite recently. I’m so happy that she now has the role of mother and tennis player. It’s very inspiring for athletes and women – it’s just amazing Petra, my admiration to you, you’re the best!” 

It was expected that the left-handed powerhouse would need time to polish up her world-class ground game, but Kvitova was still able to show signs of her old, menacing tennis despite the loss. 

Kvitova needed time to get her feet beneath her, but eased into the match nicely as she battled through a testing 54-minute first set that featured five breaks of serve. Finally it was the Czech seizing the moment, artfully swooping in to knock off a backhand volley winner to hold for 6-4. 

Credit No. 70-ranked Gracheva, who reached the Round of 16 at Roland-Garros last year, for not hanging her head. The 24-year-old engineered the only break of the second set, confirmed by one of Kvitova’s eight double-faults on the day, for 4-2, and held the rest of the way to force a decider.  

In the third set Gracheva put her mental toughness and stamina on display after the pair traded breaks twice to get to four-all. Gracheva took the final two games, breaking critically for 5-4 before converting her second match point to close out the victory in two hours and 22 minutes.

Gracheva, who reached the Round of 16 at Indian Wells in 2016, improves to 4-2 in the California desert. She saved six of 11 break points and won 55.6 percent of her second-serve points (compared to 36.8 percent for Kvitova). 

What made the difference for the Frenchwoman? 

“It’s stability. I was trying to battle all of the fears and stress [of being on a] big court [at Indian Wells for the] first time. Maybe I was a little more stable and a little more aggressive from time to time, that helped.” 

In other action early on Day 1, France’s Caroline Garcia defeated American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-4, while New Zealand’s Lulu Sun toppled Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(2). 

Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto went through when Mexico’s Renata Zarazua was forced to retire, trailing 6-4, 1-0.