World number one Naomi Osaka crashed out of Indian Wells on Tuesday, routed by Belinda Bencic on a day that saw second-ranked Simona Halep sent packing, too. Bencic, ranked 23rd in the world, defeated Osaka 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the prestigious WTA premier mandatory event, where Osaka won her first tour title last year.
That marked the start of a remarkable rise that included Osaka's first Grand Slam title at the US Open. She followed that with an Australian Open crown that sent her to number one. "I didn't play that well," Osaka said. "Honestly, at a time like this with that scoreline, I would usually feel very depressed and sad. But I feel pretty good right now, because I tried my best and I don't really have any regrets. "She was just playing so well ... there wasn't anything that I could do in that situation."
Bencic - who beat four top-10 players on the way to the title in Dubai last month, her first trophy in four years - next faces fifth-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova, who downed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-2.
The women's field lost its top two seeds as Romania's Halep, the 2015 Indian Wells winner, fell to Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. Halep, who received treatment for blisters on her foot during the match, hit just six winners and piled up 36 unforced errors. "I was running too much and too defensive," she said. "But it's everything I could do today."