Indian Wells, Mar 10 (AP) Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia beat American Hailey Baptiste 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in opening-round play at the BNP Paribas Open.

Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia overcame American Elvina Kaliera 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7) despite 18 double faults as the combined men's and women's event returned to its usual March place on the calendar after being disrupted by COVID-19.

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The tournament was one of the first major sporting events to be canceled in March 2020 when the pandemic shut down the world. It was moved to October last year and played with few spectators in the stands.

Alison Riske routed Caty McNally 6-0, 6-3 in an all-American matchup.

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Kaia Kanepi defeated 17-year-old American Robin Montgomery 6-3, 6-3. Montgomery, winner of the junior girls' singles and doubles titles at the 2021 U.S. Open, connected on 57% of her first serves but had nine double faults.

Other first-round winners were American Claire Liu, Petra Martic and Misaki Doi.

The women's draw is missing the world's top two players — Ash Barty and Barbora Krejcikova. Barty said she hasn't sufficiently recovered after winning the Australian Open and Krejcikova has an elbow injury.

Novak Djokovic said he will not be able to compete at Indian Wells or Miami because he is unvaccinated and can't travel to the United States.

The five-time champion in the desert tweeted the Centers for Disease Control “confirmed the regulations won't be changing so I won't be able to play in the U.S.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)