Murray and Top Seeds Cruise; 6 Lower Seeds Lose at Indian Wells; Djokovic, Nadal Sunday
The top seeds advanced, but six lower seeds were sent packing on Saturday at Indian Wells.
ADHEREL
Top 10 seeds advancing into the third round were No. 2 Andy Murray defeating Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-4, 7-6(3); No. 3 Stan Wawrinka sweeping past the Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-2; No. 6 Tomas Berdych putting down Juan Martin Del Potro’s comeback 7-6(4), 6-2; No. 8 Richard Gasquet taming countryman Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-1; and No. 10 Marin Cilic beating qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-3.
“He’s got quite a different game,” Murray said of Granollers. “He’s a very smart player and often makes the right decisions. He made it tough for me. When it gets windy here it can be difficult to play really well, I think. It does make it challenging.”
Murray will next meet Argentine Federico Delbonis who upset No. 32 Joao Sousa 7-6(6), 6-4.
Berdych will next face Croat Borna Coric, who upset No. 29 Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 6-2.
“These guys are the best of the world,” del Potro said. “I need to keep playing matches and tournaments. I can work hard at home physically, mentally, but I need matches to improve, you know. This is the only way.”
Other seeded winners were No. 12 Milos Raonic, No. 13 Gael Monfils, No. 15 David Goffin needing to come from a set down to beat American wildcard Frances Tiafoe 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2), and No. 17 Bernard Tomic defeating Rajeev Ram.
Upset makers were Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer ousting No. 20 Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-3, and Guido Pella outlasting No. 22 Pablo Cuevas 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; Spain’s Albert Ramos beating the back-from-illness No. 24 Nick Kyrgios 7-6(4), 7-5; and Russian Andrey Kuznetsov topping No. 28 Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.
“I’m nowhere near where I was,” Krygios said of recovering from illness. “I was trying to force practice sessions here, trying to push, but my body wasn’t letting me do it.”
Matches to look for Sunday are (23) Grigor Dimitrov vs. Alexander Zverev, (1) Novak Djokovic vs. (Q) Bjorn Fratengelo, (4) Rafael Nadal vs. Gilles Muller, and (25) Martin Klizan vs. Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco.
SUNDAY INDIAN WELLS SCHEDULE
STADIUM 1 start 11:00 am
WATP – [23] G. Dimitrov (BUL) vs A. Zverev (GER)
ATP – M. Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [5] K. Nishikori (JPN)
WTA – [1] S. Williams (USA) vs Y. Putintseva (KAZ)
ATP – [1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs [Q] B. Fratangelo (USA)
Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP – [4] R. Nadal (ESP) vs G. Muller (LUX)
Not Before 8:30 pm
WTA – [30] E. Makarova (RUS) vs [5] S. Halep (ROU)
STADIUM 2 start 11:00 am
WTA – [3] A. Radwanska (POL) vs [32] M. Niculescu (ROU)
ATP – [Q] V. Millot (FRA) vs [7] J. Tsonga (FRA)
ATP – V. Pospisil (CAN) vs [16] G. Simon (FRA)
WTA – [19] J. Jankovic (SRB) vs C. Vandeweghe (USA)
Not Before 6:00 pm
ATP – [9] J. Isner (USA) vs A. Seppi (ITA)
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