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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who is more likely to take a set?
fognini…
Murray.
Most likely two.
Tsonga and Murray in two. Pospy more likely to get a set I think because Murray has pressure as the top seed and pospy has nothing to lose and we have seen him serve insanely. Tsonga is way too good for fabio right now. Both should win in two though.
Your brain can’t possibly work like that if you even watch tennis in the remote slightest. You are just making a contrarian pick for the sake of being a contrarian. The man asked who was more than likely to take a set from the two predicted straight winners. I did not say what was going to happen or what I want to happen, I went with the most likely percentage based outcome, and that was Fognini to take a set. Your justifications are a poor lazy attempt to bring life to your prediction. Murray pressure as the top seed? Really? If you really believe your predictions and your brain really works like this after watching Tsonga this year and Murray this year, then I will gladly ignore your posts for the rest of the year.
What’s the score right now? 5-4 Pospisil serving for it. Enough said buddy.
And it was my opinion. I believed Pospisil could take a set and I didn’t really think fog would at all. Turns out fog beat him but it looks like we may have another upset. But if you want to ignore my posts that’s fine bro. Don’t really give a crap
Everyone here knows what kind of player Tsonga is. Everyone here knows what kind of player Murray is.
Tsonga et Fognini are both playing very well right now. It’s the better match since the beginning of the tournament, far from the others.
When Fog is playing well it’s just pure beauty to watch.
Fun match – Fabio and Jo. When Fogna is on I just love watching him. But I hope Jo wins…I picked Tsonga deep. Tsonga in 3
Murray in 2
This is when I just grit my teeth and want to scream watching Tsonga! He has made an art out of losing matches he should win. Fog gifts him a break back and then he plays a terrible game to get broken again. Fog serves it out and beats Tsonga for the first time.
So much for Tsonga being red hot!
What a game for Fognini ! I’m so disapointed for Tsonga but in the same time so happy for Fabio !
Exactly. I picked Tsonga but Fognini was just brilliant. The stars aligned. And I happy to see him play like that. My bracket is toast.
I believe that I picked Tsonga to get to Murray and that was it.
Nny
Yes we both took Tsonga to lose to Andy in the Semifinal…..uhg bad for our bracket. I didn’t expect Fabio to beat Jo. Fabio had never got a win over Tsonga before! There was no reason to bick Fabs because before this tournament he looked out of sorts! Bad tantrum and terrible tennis.
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/standings/68/atp/bracket
But your WTA bracket is still #2 !
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/standings/68/wta/bracket
I could not believe Fog beat Tsonga! I thought Tsonga let this match get away from him. Fog can play when he puts his mind to it. But Tsonga came into this tournament with a great start to the year and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t beat Fog. He frustrates me because this happens to quite often. He seems to be in a roll, playing well and then it just goes wrong.
Nny
Jo’s wife is due to give birth to their first child any day now…(I think I heard). Definitely know that Flavia Fognini is due in May. Fabio and Jo had a nice chat about it at the net – Jo admitted it’s on weighing on his mind. No wonder he’s not all there!
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I was wondering whether Murray may realize the opportunity with the stacked quarter at the bottom and his less dangerous section and possibly play tight. Example: Aus open when djoker lost. Looks like this could be a similar situation.
rc,
Yes, the tennis channel commies were talking about Jo’s wife being due very soon. I know these things can weigh in the mind, but Jo is a pro and shouldn’t let it cost him in a Masters event.
Pospy is top 30 when he’s playing like this. His hands are dirty!! He’s had a few bad misses up there but overall his net play has been insane at huge moments.
Vasek is killing me lol. He wants to beat the top seed. I picked Andy to win his first IW! Yeah…it all seems to be coming together for Pospy. There’s a huge number of Canadians down there this time of year. I sat with a group of them for a Milos match in 2011. They are good tennis fans. 🙂
MURRAY OUT!! POSPY WITH AN AWESOME WIN!!
This us unreal! What on earth is going on with Murray? Again?
He played so poorly in the TB! The #1 player in the world knocked out early again! He has another great draw and couldn’t get through!
That half of the draw is wide open now. Tsonga out, too! Great opportunity for Stan!
Thiem, Monfils in the bottom half with Stan! The top half is anyone’s!
Just unreal!
Goffin is there. He reached the SF last year; I think he has a good chance of doing at least the same if not better.
Benny, do you ever get your predictions right?
Aussie open is an example of when I actually did lol. I was like top 3 in the whole entire contest after the first day. I got like ten wrong picks in the whole first round. And I did pick the winner there. It was fed of course?
I am doing pretty badly this tournament though lol. Only 26-20 on picks so far.
Wow, Andy just can’t live up to the expectations! Such a poor showing for the No 1 player in the world! Novak will be extra motivated now…
Go ??!!!! Woot!!!!!
Anything’s pospisil!!!!
RT @ATPMediaInfo: .@VasekPospisil is 1st Canadian to beat a World No. 1 since Daniel Nestor (No. 238) d. Stefan Edberg in 1992 1R @DavisCup tie. #BNPPO17
From the dimonator himself:
RT @Dimonator: Pospisil on what was going wrong for him during his slump https://t.co/rkvYPHo2Sr