Unseeded Australian Jordan Thompson grabbed one of many largest wins of his profession on Friday, ousting third-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (7/0), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) to attain the third spherical of the Indian Wells WTA and ATP Masters.
“It’s unreal, at a Masters 1000 … to have a win like that’s unbelievable,” said Thompson, the world number 87 whose only prior victory over a top-10 player came back in 2017 against Andy Murray at Queen’s Club.
He admitted he felt a little lucky when a stinging forehand from Tsitsipas on match point was ruled a hair wide.
“I’m thankful that last ball was out — I thought it was in,” Thompson advised followers on court docket.
While Tsitsipas led the third-set tiebreaker 2-1 and 4-3, Thompson’s coolness below strain paid off as Tsitsipas belted a forehand into the web to give the Aussie a match level earlier than succumbing with the close to miss.
For Tsitsipas it was one other setback within the wake of his glowing run to the Australian Open last in January.
He departed Melbourne energized regardless of falling to Novak Djokovic within the title match, however shortly thereafter suffered a shoulder harm.
Playing his first match since a second-round exit at Rotterdam, Tsitsipas admitted earlier this week that his shoulder was nonetheless troubling him and he didn’t have excessive hopes of a 3rd Masters 1000 crown.
Tsitsipas and girls’s second seed Aryna Sabalenka — taking part in simply her second match since profitable the Australian Open — headlined Friday’s second-round motion as seeded gamers took the court docket after having fun with first-round byes.
Sabalenka moved easily into the third spherical with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Evginiya Rodina, who was taking part in her eighth match since a return to competitors eventually 12 months’s US Open after three years away from the sport.
“Happy to win this match in two units with out struggling an excessive amount of,” said Sabalenka, who has never made it past the round of 16 in the California desert.
Sabalenka, still barred from playing under her native flag of Belarus because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, next faces Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, who beat 29th-seeded Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-2. 6-2.
Ruud, Norrie ease through
Third-seeded Casper Ruud and former champion Cameron Norrie both eased into the third round with straight-sets victories.
For Ruud, a 6-2, 6-3 victory over former top-10 Argentinian Diego Schwartzman was a confidence-boosting win in a season in which he had so far failed to advance past the second round in three tour-level tournaments he had played.
For Norrie, however, a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Taiwanese qualifier Wu Tung-lin marked a continuation of the form that saw him reach finals last month in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro where he fell to Carlos Alcaraz in the first and beat Alcaraz in the second.
Schwartzman had won five of his eight prior meetings with Ruud, but the Norwegian, currently ranked fourth in the world, had little trouble against him on Friday, breaking him twice in the first set and once in the second to polish off the victory in an hour and 28 minutes.
“I lost to Diego here a couple of years ago so it was nice to get revenge,” stated Ruud, a finalist on the French Open and US Open final 12 months who was bundled out of the Australian Open within the second spherical in January.
“The purpose was to attempt to play heavy and generally type of combine up slightly bit, come to the web and fortunately at the moment by some means that went properly for me.”
In other early women’s action, Czech Barbora Krejcikova blew past Dayana Yastremska 6-1, 6-2 in just 69 minutes, avenging a defeat in Doha last year.
Former French Open champion Krejcikova is coming off an upset of top-ranked Iga Swiatek last month in the final at Dubai, where Krejcikova beat the top three players in the world.
World number five Daniil Medvedev, fresh off ATP victories Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai, was slated to open his campaign against American Brandon Nakashima on Friday night.
On the women’s side seventh-seeded Maria Sakkari, runner-up last year to Swiatek, trailed American Shelby Rogers 4-1 when a desert rain shower halted play.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed)
