Fabio Fognini escaped seemingly certain doom in the Indian Wells first round and will now face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Saturday. Andy Murray, meanwhile, is kicking off his campaign against qualifier Vasek Pospisil.
Fabio Fognini vs. (7) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Tsonga and Fognini will be going head-to-head for the fifth time in their careers when they battle for a spot in round three of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday. All four of their previous encounters have gone Tsonga’s way and the Frenchman is 9-1 in total sets at Fognini’s expense. Each of their four of their hard-court sets, however, has been competitive. Tsonga prevailed 6-4, 7-6(0) at the 2011 Rogers Cup and 7-5, 7-6(4) early last season in Auckland.
Fognini’s place in the last 64 looked questionable at best for almost all of two sets against Konstantin Kravchuk on Thursday, but the Italian impressively snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He lost the 10 of the match’s first 11 games en route to a 6-0, 4-1 deficit before storming back to win 0-6, 7-5, 6-4. Tsonga is an outstanding 17-3 for for the season and coming off consecutive titles in Rotterdam and Marseille. The world No. 8 is a modest 13-8 lifetime in Indian Wells, but both current form and past history against each other suggest that this one should be a beatdown.
Pick: Tsonga in 2
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(1) Andy Murray vs. (Q) Vasek Pospisil
The head-to-head story between Murray and Pospisil is a similar one. Murray has won all four of their previous meetings and is 9-0 in total sets against the Canadian and not even a single tiebreaker has been required. The current world No. 1 prevailed once in 2014 and on three occasions in 2015–including most recently via a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 decision at Wimbledon. This is not Murray and Pospisil’s first rodeo in Indian Wells, as they also squared off at this tournament two years ago and the Scot dominated 6-1, 6-3.
Murray is 12-2 this year and bounced back from a stunning fourth-round loss to Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open by capturing the Dubai title last week. He got accustomed to the Indian Wells conditions on Friday evening, when he partnered with fellow Brit Dan Evans to beat Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 during first-round doubles action. It has already been an entertaining stay in the desert for Pospisil, who qualified for the main draw and defeated Yen-Hsun Lu 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3 in round one. The 129th-ranked Canadian also won a doubles match on Friday, 11-9 in a super-tiebreaker with Steve Johnson over Marcin Matkowski and Alexander Peya. With Pospisil also possibly dealing with a minor back issue, Murray should roll to another routine victory in this matchup.
Pick: Murray in 2
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