There’s a tournament within a tournament this fortnight in Indian Wells. The bottom quarter of the BNP Paribas Open draw is stronger by itself than the entirety of any 500-point event on the whole tennis calendar.
It includes Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, and Alexander Zverev. Either Djokovic or Del Potro will lose prior to the fourth round. The same goes for Kyrgios and Zverev. Either Nadal or Federer will be out before the quarterfinals begin.
Djokovic vs. Del Potro in the third round would be a rematch of a recent Acapulco second-round affair, won by the Serb 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Nadal vs. Federer in the last 16, of course, would be a rematch of the Australian Open final–which went Federer’s way after five sets. Given that the season’s first Grand Slam might as well have been played on an ice rink, conditions in the desert should be more advantageous to the Spaniard.
Speaking of advantages, at the other end of the luck spectrum in regards to the Indian Wells draw are Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, and Grigor Dimitrov, just to name a few. The top-seeded Murray is in a quarter with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Goffin (Tsonga’s doubles partner in the desert), and Roberto Bautista Agut. Nishikori and Dimitrov are in the softer section of the loaded bottom half, where they will contend for a semifinal spot along with Marin Cilic and Jack Sock.
Seeds at risk of losing their first match:
(30) Feliciano Lopez: Frances Tiafoe (who faces Dusan Lajovic in round one) played well in Indian Wells last year, beating Taylor Fritz before falling to Goffin in a third-set tiebreaker. The American teenager may go even further in 2017 at Lopez’s expense.
(22) Albert Ramos-Vinolas: How Ramos-Vinolas snuck all the way up the No. 22 seed is one of the great mysteries of this tournament. But he may not stick around long. Both Ryan Harrison (Memphis champion and Dallas Challenger champion) and Damir Dzumhur (Memphis and Dubai quarterfinalist) are in fine form.
(27) Pablo Cuevas: Cuevas is making a quick transition from his preferred clay-court surface to hard after triumphing on Monday in Sao Paulo. Likely second-round opponent Martin Klizan is talented but volatile. If the good Klizan shows up in the desert, he should beat Cuevas on hards. If the bad Klizan shows up in the desert, Cuevas’ second-round opponent will be Thiago Monteiro.
(28) Philipp Kohlschreiber: Kohlschreiber has the misfortune of going up against whoever emerges from the best of the entire first-round contests: Viktor Troicki vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov. A proven force in Indian Wells, Dolgopolov would be especially difficult. And has Kohlschreiber recovered from blowing seven match points against Murray in Dubai?
(29) Mischa Zverev: Not too surprisingly, Zverev has been a disaster since upsetting Murray to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals. In fact, he has not won a single match since the best victory of his career (0-5). The veteran German would also rather face either Joao Sousa or Diego Schwartzman on a quicker court.
(32) Marcel Granollers: How is Granollers seeded at Masters 1000 tournament? A whole lot of withdrawals ahead of him in the rankings–that’s how. He awaits the winner of one of the tougher first-round matchups featuring Nicolas Mahut and Malek Jaziri.
(6) Marin Cilic: Cilic should advance at least to the third round, but neither Benoit Paire nor Taylor Fritz would be any kind of pushover. The Croat’s season has been disappointing at best so far.
Quarterfinal predictions: Andy Murray over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Dominic Thiem over Tomas Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov over Lucas Pouille, and Rafael Nadal over Alexander Zverev
Semifinals: Murray over Thiem and Nadal over Dimitrov
Final: Nadal over Murray
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So much around what was wrong with Murray but Pospy was just on his game and he’s simply much better than his ranking. Be nice to see him find consistency. I saw him beat Berdych back in 2013 when wifey and I were in Montreal. He made it to semis losing to Raonic in a 3rd set TB. He actually had a better all round game than Milos at the time (which isn’t saying all that much I know). He had a lot of personal stuff going on last year and multiple injuries the last two.
Just one match but let’s see.
Yes! Let’s give Pospy some credit! He came out with an aggressive game plan and executed it. Murray again did not look like himself, his second serve stats were terrible. He seemed off and not that sharp, but credit Pospy who played like a much higher ranked player.
Since Murray became #1 he hasn’t seemed like the same player. Another early exit.
After Querrey beat Rafa in Mexico, Ricky predicted he’d lose in his first IW match.
He was right. I wan’t at all surprised either.
This is what bothers me so much about Rafa losing to Querrey. He had one tournament where he played well and won a title against a sub-par Rafa. Then he shows up
in IW and loses early to Young. I was not surprised either. He can’t play consistently well at all.
Nadal-Tomic on fire today. Tomic’s playing much better than he did on round 1 and rafa is pretty sharp too.
Yay! The tennis channel is showing Rafa/Tomic doubles match!
they missed match points NNY…..now losing in the TB….down 4-2
lol…Rafa’s been bad in the TB
he’s been bad most of the match
yeah his performance kept declining…except for a few good shots here and there. Rafa-Tomic choked
vr,
Yeah, I started watching and they went downhill. They should have won it. Rafa ass missing too many times.
Rafa WAS missing way too much!
Packed stadium too…
Has Rafa won an IW doubles trophy with Marc Lopez?
yes
Wow, thanks. I thought so.
Can Pospy back up his big win with a win over Lajovic?
Well pospy took the first and Lajovic just got the second. I just started streaming it when it was set point Lajovic and Lajovic just hit the filthiest backhand. His one hander is pretty wicked. Also streamed Berdych vs Nishioka for a little while and holy crap Berdych was up 6-1 5-3 and served for it up 5-4 and double faulted twice in one game and started spraying errors a bunch plus Nishioka is so fast and playing so solid and seeming to get under Berdych’s skin with his wicked defense and tenacity. Nishioka is a baller man. 7-5 in the breaker for the young Japanese lefty. Both Pospy/Lajovic and Nishioka/Berdych going the distance.
Yeah LOL…Nishioka is fun to watch! I was streaming Lajovic v Pospy and saw those sick one-handers Lajovic hit – that guy is good. I’ve rarely seen Dusan Lajovic or Yoshi Nishioka. It’s confusing which match to watch. Also have dubs on Tennis Channel… PHH/Mahut v Nole/Viktor. Incredible tennis going on…
Ah nooooo Pospy choked serving for the match! that was painful!!
And now Yoshi will try to serve for the match! ??
Nishioka WINS!!!
Nishioka’s defense was UNREAL!! He basically broke down Berdych mentally by getting so many balls back. I couldn’t believe some of the gets he had in points he ended up winning. Amazing moment for him. Meanwhile Pospisil is in a tough situation at 5-5 in the third had match points at 5-4 and lost his serve to love when serving for it at 5-3.
Correction. Pospisil down. Shit
I can’t watch it
Just when I thought Pospisil was gonna start making an awesome comeback to where he was in the rankings a few years ago. Loses multiple leads in a match to Lajovic after he beats Murray. ? On the bright side I like Lajovic and his game and that’s pretty sweet to see him get the win. Huge tournament for him. He’s got a solid shot against PCB next round.
Wow! Popsy lost? I started watching other programming and took a brief break from my marathon tennis watchhing, only to find out the both Berdy and Popsy lost.
I did see Nishioka’s reaction and it was quite something to see! He finally had a moment! Good for him! But I feel for Popsy not being able to capitalize on his win against Murray.
Nny
Can’t take anymore! Didn’t know I could hit the wall watching tennis but I have…I’m done, completely fried. Aga losing to Peng and …that’s enough. See you tomorrow! 😀
rc,
Oh, I didn’t know that Aga lost! I was watching something else! My brain was fried ftomdo much tennis! Bummed that Aga lost!
☹️
Autocorrect garbled my last post again!
I was trying to say that my brain is fried from too much tennis!
That’s something that always happen – happened to Querrey, happened to Verdasco, now happened to Pospisil. They are just not consistently good enough to string a few wins together esp after beating a big name.
The way Nishioka played, it put into perspective why Rafa had a hard time against him at Acapulco but Rafa was just too good to lose to him.
Bad loss for Popsi, he was up by a break in the 2nd & in the 3rd and have a match point in the third that he just missed by nothing (actually i even think that a Lajovic’s forehand was out in that point…). But that’s it, give credit anyway to Lajovic who make some great plays and win the match.
Yeah that forehand pass was close I have no idea why pospy didn’t challenge it.
I’m not talking about the passing winner who took the line i think. In the beginning of that point i think a Lajovic’s forehand was just a little bit behind the backcourt line, but it could have took the line too. Anyway Pospi should have won. His service game for the match has to be shown in tennis school. It’s just a complete pannel of what you must not do.
I thought Murray had already lost in R2? Why when I view the poll results, there were people still voting for him to win the tournament? Were/are these people not aware of Murray’s early loss at IW?
Wow none of players on the quarters prediction actually got there