Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez in action at Indian Wells

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‍Fernandez vs. Garcia @ 1pm ET: DAZN, Tennis Channel, TVA Sports, TSN

Leylah Annie Fernandez shot to fame with back-to-back wins at the 2021 and 2022 Monterrey Opens, but the 20 year-old has been struggling for form this season with only four main draw wins all year.

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Fernandez arrived at Indian Wells having suffered a straight sets round of 32 loss to Iga Swiatek at the Dubai Tennis Championships. But the World No.49 sought to make up for that defeat with a straight sets win of her own on Saturday - overcoming Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-4 in a powerful tournament opener in California.

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Today she’ll face off against World No.5 Caroline Garcia, who’s 31-13 on hard courts this year and arrives having made it to the final of the Monterrey Open with losing a single set.

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Garcia lost out in that final against Donna Vekic, but she comes into today’s clash as the strong favourite, and Fernandez may have to produce a near perfect performance to book a place in the next round this afternoon.

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Garcia won in straight sets the last time that they met, but the 7-6(5), 7-5 scoreline shows Fernandez was in the running every step of the way.

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That will give the Canadian reason to believe here, and we’re backing Fernandez to pull off an upset today.

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Our pick: Fernandez to win (+145)

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Andreescu vs. Swiatek @ 8 pm ET: DAZN, Tennis Channel, TVA Sports, TSN

Andreescu is 6-11 so far this season, with her best showing coming at last month’s Thailand Open, where she racked up three straight sets wins before a semi-final loss to Lesia Tsurenko.

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Since then the 22-year old has struggled on the court - suffering opening-round defeats at both the Dubai Tennis Championships and Abu Dhabi Open.

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And arriving at the BNP Paribas Open as the 32nd seed, Andreescu DID NOT have an easy ride in her opening match of the tournament - coming back from a set down to win a gruelling encounter against USA’s Peyton Stearns.

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It couldn't be more different for her opponent Iga Swiatek, who’s lost only three of her 16 matches so far this season, and won the Qatar Open without dropping a single set.

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One of those three losses came in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships, where Swiatek was denied yet another title after a straight sets defeat to Barbora Krejcikova.

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The World No.1 made up for that in her opening match at Indian Wells though - dismantling Claire Liu 6-0, 6-1 in a match that lasted just 66 minutes. 

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Swiatek has won five tournaments on hard courts over the past year, and she’s 1-0 in the head-to-head record, having beaten Andreescu in straight sets when that last met at the quarterfinals of the 2022 Italian Open.

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The Canadian and former U.S.Open Champion, Andreescu, needed 2 hours and 26 minutes to beat Peyton Stearns in the last round, so Swiatek is the massive favourite here. 

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But if Andreescu can find her A game tonight she can still ask questions of any player in the world…

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Our pick: Andreescu to win a set (+266)

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TV Guide

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