Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi have extra motivation this week at the BNP Paribas Open. Since making his ATP World Tour Masters 1000 debut in 1997 at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the 39-year-old Mirnyi has won 16 doubles titles at this level. Of the current Golden 9, Indian Wells remains the only title missing from his collection. Meanwhile, the 31-year-old Huey has his sights sets on a first Masters 1000 title following a runner-up finish in the desert four years ago. What makes these Masters 1000 tournaments special? Mirnyi: There’s a lot to play for. The best teams are playing. There’s a lot of points, prize money, and this is where you can improve your game and move up the...
A LOOK BACK Cachantun Open (Santiago, Chile): Top seed Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil continues his success in clay-court Challengers with a 7-5, 6-3 over wild card and local favourite Nicolas Jarry. The 33-year-old now has nine Challenger titles, eight of which have come on clay. He has won at least one Challenger every year since 2011. Jarry drops to 0-2 in Challenger finals this year, having also finished runner-up in his previous event in Morelos, Mexico. (l. Bublik) Zhuhai Open (Zhuhai, China): Top seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia lived up to his billing by defeating seventh seed and defending champion Thomas Fabbiano of Italy, 6-3, 6-4. Fresh off his victory over Roger Federer at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis...
Fifth seed Rafael Nadal faces another potentially epic battle against Fernando Verdasco after scoring a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Guido Pella in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against the 26th seed Verdasco 15-3, but five of their seven most recent meetings went to a deciding set. However, Nadal has won both of their previous encounters in Indian Wells, scoring third-round victories in 2007 and 2016. Pella got off to a hot start, breaking Nadal in the third game of their first meeting. But the fifth-seeded Spaniard settled in and reeled off six of the next seven games to clinch the opener...
Fourth seed Kei Nishikori booked his spot in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Daniel Evans. The Japanese star advanced in 85 minutes, converting four of nine break points to record his second win in three meetings with Evans, who famously upset Nishikori four years ago in the US Open first round. "It was a tough match. Obviously he's been playing well. I know he can play great tennis and when he was playing aggressively, he was very tough to play," said Nishikori. "But I think I managed really well from the first point until the end. I'm happy with my service game also, so I think it was a...
