Qualifier Christian Garin shocked third seed Kasper Ruud 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells on Sunday as Daniil Medvedev and Cameron Norrie weathered the fear.
Garin’s offensive play paid off, with the 97th-place Chilean defeating world No. 4 Ruud in less than two hours.
“The way I played today, I’m so happy,” Garin, 26, said. “I was aggressive the whole match.”
His 39 winners were too many for Ruud, a two-time Grand Slam finalist last year, who was hoping a quick win over Diego Schwartzman in his first round would mark a turning point in a season where he didn’t advance past the second round. in the previous three tournaments.
Meanwhile, Medvedev, long annoyed by slow hard courts in the California desert, managed to extend his ATP winning streak to 16 games with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win over 85th-ranked Ilya Ivashka. place.
Medvedev, who won three titles in a row in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai, said the victory was a matter of “a few points” but they went their own way to keep him on track to improve his previous Indian Wells best of the round. out of 16 in 2021.
“It’s (hard) to do something during a rally, so you just have to see who gets the most balls into the court. second set.
He grumbled to the referee that he would be “slow as a court” with the restroom break, but braced himself to take a 5-0 lead in the third, serving it out after Ivashka saved three match points to hold on in the penultimate game .
“I can’t say that I played much better in the third match, but (I) managed not to miss after 25 shots,” said Medvedev, who will then face ex-world number two Alexander Zverev.
Zverev, who returned from an ankle ligament tear that ended his 2022 French Open campaign, said much the same after a 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 victory over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
“Honestly, I think he played a lot better than me throughout the match,” Zverev said. “Sometimes it happens that one or two points can decide the outcome of the match.”
No. 10 seed Norrie, who reached the final in Buenos Aires and won the trophy in Rio de Janeiro last month, lost the set 4-1 to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel before rallying 6-7 (5/7) , 7. -5, 6-2 win.
Another Chilean qualifier joined Garin in the fourth round as Alejandro Tabilo scored a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) victory over unseeded Jordan Thompson, who upset second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.
Tabilo set up a meeting with American Francis Tiafoe, who beat Australian Jason Kubler 6-3, 6-2.
– Sobolenko wins by a margin –
As for the WTA/ATP Masters 1000 combined women’s team, second-seeded Australian Open champion Arina Sobolenko of Belarus advanced when Ukraine’s Lesya Tsurenko withdrew from her scheduled match.
Tsurenko has lost by retirement or retirement in nine of her 18 tournaments since last year in Indian Wells.
American Jessica Pegula, who placed third, rose again after a set, beating Anastasia Potapova 3–6, 6–4, 7–5.
“It was definitely a battle today,” said Pegula, who also recovered from her second-round win over Camila Giorgi. “She definitely came out hitting her punches and drawing lines and aiming for it.
“So I’m just glad that I was able to come back to the match and ended up playing much better than at the beginning.”
American Coco Gauff, who placed sixth, quickly scored a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Linda Noskova.
But it took last year’s runner-up Maria Sakkari two and a half hours to record a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Angelina Kalinina – Sakkari’s second straight win coming from behind.
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Source: sports.yahoo.com
