Main-draw action at the Indian Wells Masters will get underway on Thursday, when Borna Coric and Donald Young face each other in an intriguing first-round contest. Fellow left-handers Fernando Verdasco and Guido Pella are also kicking off their campaigns in the desert.
Borna Coric vs. Donald Young
Coric and Young will be squaring off for the third time in their careers when they meet again in the BNP Paribas Open first round on Thursday afternoon. Both of their previous encounters have gone Coric’s way; 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on the grass courts of Halle in 2015 and 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 last summer in Winston-Salem. The 21-year-old Croat is a solid 6-3 for his 2018 campaign with quarterfinal performances in Doha and last week in Dubai.
Young, on the other hand, is a horrendous 1-5 this season and in danger of disappearing from the top 100 at No. 99 in the world–50 spots behind Coric. The 28-year-old American’s lone victory has come at the expense of 140th-ranked Ramkumar Ramanathan in the Delray Beach opening round. A much tougher foe awaits on Thursday, and Coric’s defense should force an erratic Young to play too many long points.
Pick: Coric in 2
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Fernando Verdasco vs. Guido Pella
Verdasco and Pella are set to go head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season. They just faced each other during the Golden Swing, where Pella dominated 6-2, 6-4 on the red clay of Buenos Aires. It was still a decent month of February for Verdasco, mainly thanks to a runner-up showing in Rio de Janeiro. The 34-year-old Spaniard registers at 39th in the rankings and missed out on a seed and a first-round bye by just one spot (No. 38 Milos Raonic is the No. 32 seed in Indian Wells).
Pella did not do anything on the Golden Swing aside from a quarterfinal finish in Buenos Aires, but he displayed some impressive hard-court tennis during the season-opening tournament in Doha. That is where the 60th-ranked Argentine advanced to the semifinals with a trio of victories before losing a high-quality thriller against Andrey Rublev that ended in a third-set tiebreaker. A change of surface should not prevent Pella from getting the best of his fellow left-hander for the second time in less than a month.
Pick: Pella in 3
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who ya got?
Coric and Verdasco in three.
Nando in three Coric in two
Nando v Pella seems pretty even but a slight hard court edge and much greater experience to Nando.
I was right 😉
This Indian Wells is Roger Federer’s to lose http://www.138mph.com/indian-wells-will-roger-federer-be-able-to-defend-his-crown/