INDIAN WELLS — Angelique Kerber avenged her defeat to Elena Vesnina here last year by ending the Russian’s title defence with a straight-sets win on Monday to reach the BNP Paribas Open fourth round.

The 10th-seeded Kerber, who had lost her last two meetings to Vesnina, saved 9/13 break points in the one-hour 39-minute battle in hot conditions in the California desert to set up a last-16 clash against French No. 7 seed Caroline Garcia with a 7-5, 6-2.

“I think the match was a really high level from the both of us. The first set was extremely important. The second set was really close, it was 6-2 but every game was really close and every single point was really a fight. It’s a great feeling to win another match here at Indian Wells,” said the two-time Grand Slam champion.

The German lefty now owns a joint tour-leading 17 victories in 2018 (same as Caroline Wozniacki).

Vesnina went down an early break but struck back and inched ahead to lead 5-4 and serve for the set. The Russian couldn’t close it though as Kerber drew level.

Kerber needed a lengthy game to hold for 6-5 then went up 0-40 on Vesnina’s serve in game 12. The No. 24 seed saved all three set points though.

A netted volley saw Vesnina face a fourth set point and a deep, high return from Kerber gave the German the advantage.

Vesnina kept getting opportunities to break but Kerber swatted them away as she leapt to a 5-1 lead in the second set.

Serving for the match, Kerber fell behind 0-40 and Vesnina broke to stay alive in the clash. But that only delayed the inevitable as Kerber wrapped up the win in the next game, wearing down Vesnina in a long exchange to advance to the fourth round.

Kerber’s best results in Indian Wells came in 2012 and 2013 when she reached the semi-finals. The last left-hander win the BNP Paribas Open was Monica Seles in 1992, and last German to triumph here was Steffi Graf in 1996.