Australian Open champion Madison Keys needed six match points as she clawed out a 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 6-4 victory over Elise Mertens on Monday to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells.

Unable to convert two match points as she served at 5-3 in the second set, the fifth-seeded American blew two more in the tiebreaker before finally polishing off the 28th seed from Belgium in two hours and 48 minutes.

“It’s always tough when you feel like you’re not playing your best tennis against someone who’s really tricky,” Keys said. “Definitely really frustrating, lots of ups and downs.

“It’s just abut surviving,” added Keys, who had lost twice to Mertens since beating her at Wimbledon in 2021.

Keys is playing her first tournament since capturing her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne. She has found the California desert inhospitable in the past and is in the last 16 for just the third time.

She’ll face either compatriot Emma Navarro or Croatia’s Donna Vecic as she tries to seal a quarter-final berth.

Two-time defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz and women’s world number one Aryna Sabalenka highlighted Stadium Court action in the combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 event.

Spain’s Alcaraz, vying to join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the only men to win three straight Indian Wells titles, takes on 27th-seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada.

The world number three from Spain is the highest-ranked player remaining in the men’s draw after No. 2 Alexander Zverev’s second-round exit. Top-ranked Italian Jannik Sinner is serving a belated three-month drugs ban.

Third-seeded American Taylor Fritz, last year’s US Open runner-up who won the Indian Wells title in 2022, took on Chile’s 31st-ranked Alejandro Tabile.

The winner of that match next faces 14th-ranked Jack Draper of Britain, who shook off a slow start to beat Jenson Brooksby 7-5, 6-4.

Trailing 4-1 in the opening set, Draper found his groove to fend off the American who is ranked 937th in the world after missing two years during which he had two wrist surgeries, rehabbed a shoulder injury and served suspension for missing multiple anti-doping tests.

“Jenson is an unorthodox player, he makes life really difficult,” said Draper, who flung his racquet in frustration at one point in the first set.

“He doesn’t make the rhythm easy. I got off to a slow start, I missed a couple of opportunities early on.

“But I’m glad of the way I fought and competed. Even though it wasn’t my best tennis today, I’m really happy with the way I tried my best to stay cool.”

In other early matches, Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-4, ending the run of the Dutch lucky loser who toppled 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Carlos Alcaraz kept his Indian Wells “three-peat” campaign on track with a pristine 6-2 6-4 win against Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the third round on Monday, as a crowd of Americans fed off the home fans to reach the final 16.

The second-seeded Spaniard Alcaraz was never in doubt as he won the first five games, sending over 10 winners in the first set alone, as Shapovalov – who was fresh off a confident win in Dallas – struggled to find his usual intensity.

The four-times major winner never faced a break in a nearly flawless second set and he held to love in the final game, clinching the affair in under 90 minutes with a mighty overhead smash.

He will play the winner of a match between Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and France’s Gael Monfils.

“I knew at the beginning of the match that I had to be really focused. I had to start the match really strong, knowing it was going to be a really tough battle,” said Alcaraz.

Alcaraz wants to become only the third man to win three straight titles at the Masters 1000 tournament after retired great Roger Federer and former number one Novak Djokovic, who crashed out in the second round.

“I’m just really pleased about my performance today, about everything I have done,” said Alcaraz. “Few things that I have to improve, but I’m really happy.”

Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka used her powerful serve to wallop Italian Lucia Bronzetti 6-1 6-2, bringing her best form to the tournament after suffering early exits at the Qatar Open and in Dubai.

It took little time for Sabalenka to find her footing, as she sprinted through the first set and quickly recovered after dropping her serve early in the second. She will play British lucky loser Sonay Kartal next.

“It wasn’t as easy as the score looks like. It was tough conditions out there, and happy with the way I managed that,” she said.
So I came to get the experience, so I’ll go back and learn from my mistakes.’

In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skilfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practising kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering.

Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu.

“Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts… I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said.

The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of Sichuan is thought to have historically welcomed a higher proportion of women and girls. But it has not achieved the same level of public fame as other kung fu schools, such as Shaolin.

That is starting to change thanks in part to Duan’s nine-woman troupe, Emei Kung Fu Girls, which meshes deft swordwork with social media savvy to help put the sect back on the map.

Duan Ruru is a founding member of the Emei Kung Fu Girls, a troupe in Emeishan, China

In slick videos, the troupe performs everything from combat scenes to flips in front of the Louvre in Paris, often backed by booming hip-hop beats.

They also show off their moves alongside branded beverages or cars, though the group declined to comment on whether they make money from advertising.

Since their debut last April, they have amassed more than 23 million views and over a million followers on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.

The artform “has a place in history… so I think it’s something worth spreading”, Duan told AFP.

Wider audience

Known across China for its misty peaks, Emeishan in Sichuan province has tried in recent years to cash in on its cultural bounty – with mixed results.

Local martial arts sects have their origins in ancient Taoist philosophy and evolved into a form of defence during China’s frequent wars.

Chinese martial arts have long been seen as a male-dominated sphere, but a younger cohort of girls is changing the narrative

The importance of the schools shrank as weapons modernised, and the ruling Communist Party later suppressed what it viewed as potential hotbeds of deviant thought.

But those policies have since relaxed, and in 2008 Beijing listed Emei martial arts as intangible cultural heritage, opening up funds to develop the craft.

Progress has been uneven, with city officials admitting in 2023 that the discipline suffered from “a lack of recognition among tourists, and dissemination is not high”.

Kung fu master Wang Chao, a national-level representative of Emei martial arts, said the sect still relies heavily on government money.

But the Kung Fu Girls’ videos have been “very good” at bringing the local art to a wider audience, he told AFP.

“Publicity for Emei martial arts is much more powerful now,” he said.

Confidence boost

The ancient Emei kung fu school has struggled to attain the same level of fame of some other martial arts sects, like Shaolin

Founding member Duan, who has been training since she was 12 years old, said her generation “loves being independent and free-spirited”.

Some Emei students have been inspired to keep pursuing martial arts, including Ren Nianjie, who wants to study it at university.

“I want to be an athlete… to win glory for the country,” the 17-year-old told AFP after whirling a wooden staff.

The popular image of Emei’s women fighters comes largely from best-selling novels by Hong Kong author Louis Cha, who wrote under the pen name Jin Yong.

In reality, boys still outnumber girls – though perhaps not as heavily as in other sects.

On a Friday evening in February, seven girls were present among a class of 17 primary school students at a nearby martial arts academy.

Kung fu master Wang Chao, a national-level representative of Emei martial arts, said the sect still relies heavily on government money

Parent Zhu Haiyan, 41, said her daughter Guoguo had grown more assured since starting her course a year ago.

“When girls have self-confidence, they can be less timid when they go out,” she said as Guoguo practised on a mat a few metres (yards) away.

Duan, from Kung Fu Girls, said she hoped the group would inspire more young girls to take up martial arts.

“They might see me training and think it’s super attractive and cool, and be drawn to learn it themselves,” she told AFP.