Fresh off stunning Emma Raducanu in the opening round at the BNP Paribas Open, Moyuka Uchijima seeks back-to-back wins over former Grand Slam champions when the Indian Wells debutant takes on Coco Gauff in Saturday's second-round match.
The American No. 1 enters the Sunshine Double after losing three on the trot, and the 2023 US Open champion aims to end her winless run by getting the better of her Japanese opponent, who has never defeated a top-10 player.
Match preview
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Gauff, last year's WTA Finals champion, began 2025 as she ended the previous season, winning her opening five matches preceding the Australian Open before notching four more wins Down Under to advance to the quarter-final in Melbourne.
However, the United States star's nine-match winning streak was snapped by Paula Badosa at the opening Grand Slam of the year, and the 20-year-old has not secured another success since beating Belinda Bencic at Melbourne Park.
That defeat by Badosa was followed by disappointments against Marta Kostyuk in Doha and McCartney Kessler in Dubai entering the third WTA 1000 event of 2025, and she begins her Indian Wells campaign 9-3 this season.
Having reached last year's semi-final before falling to Maria Sakkari, whom she could face in this year's third round, the American aims to set up another meeting with the Greek player after last year's thrilling three-setter.
Gauff has never lost her opening match in the Californian desert, beating Caroline Garcia in 2021, Claire Liu in 2022, Cristina Bucsa two years ago and Clara Burel 12 months back, and the third seed aims to keep that run going to improve her 9-4 career record at Indian Wells.
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Despite the American's history at the BNP Paribas Open, Uchijima adapting to windy conditions in defeating Raducanu possibly stands the world No. 52 in good stead if blustery circumstances persist on Saturday.
That 6-3, 6-2 success over the 2021 US Open champion means Uchijima has beaten two former Grand Slam winners in the last month, having defeated 2017 French Open victor Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai in February before beating Raducanu this week.
Aiming to record her third triumph over such opponents this season, the Japanese player could also claim a maiden top-10 victory when she takes on Gauff in the United States for the chance to clinch her biggest career triumph.
Without a set won in five previous matches against such opponents, Uchijima's first task in her uphill battle to snap that 0-5 losing run will be avoiding another straight-set loss in her first match-up with Gauff on the women's tour.
Now 8-9 for the season, including qualifying successes, and 3-7 in main draws, the 23-year-old could secure her ninth win in 2025 against an out-of-form American player.
Tournament so far
Coco Gauff:
First round: Bye
Moyuka Uchijima:
First round: vs. Emma Raducanu 6-3 6-2
Head To Head
Both women battle for the first time on the WTA Tour, with the victor taking a 1-0 lead in their head-to-head.
Moyuka is 0-5 against top-10 players, having lost to Aryna Sabalenka at Roland Garros, Ons Jabeur at Wimbledon, Qinwen Zheng in Tokyo and Jasmine Paolini at the Billie Jean King Cup last year before falling to Elena Rybakina in Dubai last month.
Gauff holds a 133-27 career record against players ranking 51st and lower; the American No. 1 is 24-1 in the last year against such opponents, though that sole defeat was against Kessler in Dubai.
The 20-year-old aims to avoid consecutive losses to opponents below the top 50 for the first time since January 2022, when she fell to Madison Keys in Adelaide and Wang Qiang at the Australian Open.
We say: Gauff to win in two sets
While Gauff should return to winning ways at Uchijima's expense to improve her 24-1 record against women ranked outside the top 50 in the last year, the Japanese player will hope to clinch a set against the off-form home player.
Despite that ambition, we back the American star to edge the world No. 52 in two tight sets to advance to a possible third-round contest with Sakkari, who takes on Viktoriya Tomova.
