Daniil Medvedev infamously declared in 2023 that the BNP Paribas Open surface is not a hard court.
But the self-proclaimed hard-court specialist has had no trouble with the Indian Wells conditions in recent seasons–at least against anyone other than Carlos Alcaraz.
Medvedev, who has finished runner-up to Alcaraz each of the past two years at this Masters 1000 tournament, made a return trip to the quarterfinals by beating Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday night. The world No. 5 converted six of eight break points to advance in a mere one hour and 14 minutes at the expense of an extremely in-form opponent.
“I’m happy with my game,” Medvedev assured. “It’s not easy to play here. Breaks of serve–of course we still win more [service games] than we we lose–but breaks of serves don’t mean much here. So even when he came back in the first, I was like, ‘try pushing, try going further.’ I managed to raise my level during the match, so I’m pretty happy about it.”
Next up for the Russian is Arthur Fils, who is into a Masters 1000 quarterfinal for the first time after holding off Marcos Giron 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 earlier on Tuesday night. Fils is the first player born in 2004 to reach a Masters quarterfinal (Jakub Mensik, born in 2005, advanced to the Shanghai quarters last fall).
“He plays well,” Medvedev assessed. “I watched his matches here; he’s in good shape. In (the) quarterfinals of an ATP Masters 1000 you never get an easy match…. We only played once (Vienna 2023); he was younger, so (it’s) kind of a different matchup right now. I’ll need to be at my best to try to win.”
Thursday’s other matchup in the top half of the draw is Holger Rune vs. Tallon Griekspoor.
is Meddy back?