It’s hard to get a handle on the playing conditions at the BNP Paribas Open.
The surface is slow, but the ball flies through the air. It’s jumping up high on Stadium 1, but the bounce is lower on the outer courts. It can be hot during the day and borderline freezing at night. Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz faced each other with almost no wind on Wednesday afternoon. About an hour later, Carlos Alcaraz and Grigor Dimitrov were playing in a borderline hurricane.
Following the conclusion of fourth-round action on Wednesday night, eight quarterfinalists remain. And it’s quite a mix of characters.
There are former world No. 1s and Grand Slam champions (Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev), but there is also an unseeded player (Tallon Griekspoor) and two other guys ranked outside the top 20 (Arthur Fils and Francisco Cerundolo). There is someone who is very good on grass (Jack Draper) and another who is at his best on clay (Cerundolo). There are players who love these conditions (Alcaraz and Cerundolo, just to name a couple) and at least one who despises them (Medvedev). Of course, how much can you really hate the conditions when you have reached the final each of the past two years?
Yes, the quarterfinal lineup is a fun one.
But with Jannik Sinner suspended, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic long gone from the tournament, and guys like Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Andrey Rublev having also been ousted, one stands far above the rest as a massive title favorite.
Not only is Alcaraz the two-time defending champion in the desert, but he is also in ruthless form this fortnight. The third-ranked Spaniard dropped 14 total games in six sets while disposing of Quentin Halys, Denis Shapovalov, and Dimitrov.
“I always say that I like playing with wind, with these conditions,” Alcaraz said after destroying Dimitrov 6-1, 6-1. “I think I adapt really well my game to these conditions. I think to play with such a huge wind is to believe in your physical conditions and to believe that you’re going to reach every ball. That’s what I thought in the match. So I feel really well the ball, as well; I think the position [for] every shot was really good.
“Every time that I (am) playing here [on] this court, I just feel great the conditions here, the court, the balls I think every day (there) is a little bit of wind, which I like playing with. So I think everything suits pretty well to my game, to my style. I have time to reach the ball when I’m defending. I have time to make good positions to attack during the points.”
To say that’s bad news for the other seven quarterfinalists would be a gross understatement.
who ya got?
Ben, Carlos, Med, Rune