After beating 38-year-old American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko in the first round, Kartal used the feel she has gained on the new-look Indian Wells courts, external over the past week to great effect against Haddad Maia.
Haddad Maia, ranked 17th in the world, received a bye into the second round and looked out of sorts again as she slumped to a fifth successive defeat.
Kartal’s run is another notable landmark for a player who has enjoyed one of the sharpest rises on the WTA Tour in the past year.
In October, she won a maiden tour title in Monastir and cracked the world’s top 100 for the first time as a result.
At the start of 2024, Kartal feared she would not play again that season because of a health scare that left her going “in and out of hospital”.
But she returned to action within three months and has gone from strength to strength after saying the experience had changed her outlook.
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