Murray, Shelton Indian Wells Winners; Medvedev, Zverev, Rublev Today

Former finalist Andy Murray won yet another three-setter this time in his Indian Wells opener dispatching Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-7(5-7), 6-1, 6-4.

Murray had to rally from a set down against the 23-year-old who just made his first final last weekend in Santiago. Murray’s last nine wins have come in deciding sets.

“I don’t think it is a coincidence, but last year I lost a lot of them,” Murray told the ATP. “I was talking to my team about it, just saying like the law of averages… this can’t keep going. Once I won one I did feel like I would start to feel more comfortable in those situations. Thankfully that’s been the case. Obviously winning all seven, I’m aware that at some stage I’m going to lose one of them.

“I worked very hard in the offseason to put myself in a great position physically, and I feel very motivated. Even when I’ve gotten behind in matches I’ve kept fighting, kept trying to find solutions… I won some matches that certainly if some of these matches were played last year I wouldn’t have won them.”

Murray will take on Pablo Carreno Busta on Saturday.

Another past runner-up, Stan Wawrinka, also won eliminating 26-year-old Aleksandar Vukic of Australia in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.

On the American front, 20-year-old phenom Ben Shelton made the most of his debut in the desert pounding Italian veteran Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-1.

Shelton, ranked No. 41, hit five aces, had five doubles and broke serve four times in the match. He’ll now face defending champion Taylor Fritz on Saturday.

Marton Fucsovics moved past American J.J. Wolf 1-6, 6-0, 6-3. Mackenzie McDonald enjoyed an easy win over Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-0. Great Britain’s 21-year-old star Jack Draper defeated Leandro Riedi 6-1, 6-1. Jack Sock ousted Gregoire Barrere of France 6-4, 6-2 and Adrian Mannarino edged former champion Dominic Thiem in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(7-5).

Richard Gasquet, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin were also winners.

Friday, seeds hit the court with some good matches including No. 2 Stefanos Tsitsipas against Jordan Thompson. Tsitsipas leads Thompson 2-0 in their tour-level collisions winning their last meeting at 2022 Wimbledon R64.

No. 3 Casper Ruud takes on Diego Schwartzman. Schwartzman has won five of eight tour-level encounters against Ruud with the Norwegian taking their most recent in the 2022 Buenos Aires final.

Tournament favorite and No. 5 Daniil Medvedev meets Brandon Nakashima, No. 6 Andrey Rublev gets Jiri Lehecka and No. 12 Alexander Zverev faces Pedro Cachin.

FRIDAY INDIAN WELLS SCHEDULE
STADIUM 1
Matches Start At: 11:00 am
ATP Diego SCHWARTZMAN (ARG) vs Casper RUUD (NOR) [3]
ATP Jordan THOMPSON (AUS) vs Stefanos TSITSIPAS (GRE) [2]
Not Before 3:00 PM
WTA Maria Sakkari (GRE) [7] vs Shelby Rogers (USA)

Not Before 6:00 pm
ATP Daniil MEDVEDEV [5] vs Brandon NAKASHIMA (USA)
Not Before 8:00 PM
WTA Camila Giorgi (ITA) vs Jessica Pegula (USA) [3]

STADIUM 2
Matches Start At: 11:00 am
WTA Jil Teichmann (SUI) vs Belinda Bencic (SUI) [9]
WTA Evgeniya Rodina vs Aryna Sabalenka [2]
ATP Pedro CACHIN (ARG) vs Alexander ZVEREV (GER) [12]

Not Before 6:00 PM
WTA Coco Gauff (USA) [6] vs [Q] Cristina Bucsa (ESP)
ATP Frances TIAFOE (USA) [14] vs Marcos GIRON (USA)

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