Thursday, March 7, 2019 - Ysaline Bonaventure plays Taylor Townsend in the 1st round of the BNP Paribas Open in Stadium 6 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. (Jared Wickerham/BNP Paribas Open)
While Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure is ranked 55 spots lower than Taylor Townsend, her opening round opposition in Indian Wells, she pulled a full-on role reversal tonight in the desert.
Bonaventure rallied from a one set deficit and stamped her ticket into the second round of the 2019 BNP Paribas Open with a 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2 victory.
After the two battled through a back-and-forth opening set in which the Belgian faltered in the tiebreak, Bonaventure rallied to capture one of the biggest wins of her career.
She won (90/116) 78% of her first service points, and overcame the American with an attacking game plan that wore Townsend down in the later stages of the match.
Next up for Bonaventure, she’ll look to make it two upsets in a row as she meets No. 28 seed Donna Vekic.