Big Names Start Strongly in Indian Wells:
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are all safely through to the 3rd Round of Indian Wells having won their opening matches. Djokovic battled past Bjorn Fratagelo 7-6 6-2 in his first match in 41 days to claim his 50th match win at Indian Wells, while Nadal stormed past Jarred Donaldson with an easy 6-1 6-1 victory. Meanwhile Federer was made to work hard by Peter Gojowczyk in a 6-1 7-5 victory, where Gojowczyk twice led by a break in the second set. Federer faces a tough 3rd Round opponent in Stan Wawrinka, who is looking to break back into the world’s top 30 once again.
A potential 4th Round opponent for the winner of that match is the Briton Kyle Edmund, who has found some form once again after playing a challenger recently to get match wins under his belt. Edmund routed Nicolas Jarry 6-2 6-0 to set up a meeting with Radu Albot, who recently won his first ATP title at Delray Beach.
Most of the other top seeds are safely through, with Alexander Zverev’s opponent Martin Klizan having to retire, and Nishikori just about battling past Adrien Mannarino in a 6-4 4-6 7-6. Dominic Thiem is also through having beaten Jordan Thompson 6-4 7-5. However, Nick Kyrgios couldn’t repeat his Acapuclo heroics and was beaten by a brilliant Philipp Kohlschreiber, who goes on to play Djokovic. Kohlschreiber did not allow the Aussie to play on his terms, hitting some excellent dropshots and return winners in a perfectly executed game plan.
In the women’s draw, things have been running as expected, with Osaka, Halep, Pliskova and Kerber all coming through. However there was no such luck for Serena Williams, who had to retire at 6-3 1-0 down against Garbine Muguruza. There is no British interest left in the women’s draw, with Johanna Konta losing out to 7th seed Kiki Bertens.
Written by Emre Saridogan