Philipp Kohlschreiber has accomplished plenty in his career on the ATP World Tour. The German has won a title in six of the past seven seasons, climbed as high as No. 16 in the ATP Rankings and much more. But the 34-year-old arrived at this BNP Paribas Open out of form, failing to win back-to-back matches this season. But perhaps Kohlschreiber will burst into a strong season thanks to his efforts in Indian Wells. The German veteran upset second seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday afternoon for his first Top 10 win since 2016 and advanced to the Round of 16 in the Coachella Valley for the first time since 2011 (l. to del Potro). "Very happy," Kohlschreiber said....
Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez knocked out sixth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 6-4, 7-6(5) in one hour and 41 minutes on Monday at the BNP Paribas Open. At 5-6 in the second set, Lopez and Lopez saved three match points in recovering from 15/40 before edging a tight tie-break. Rojer, who has 349 match wins, and Tecau won the recent Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title (d. Cerretani/Paes). The Spaniards will now face Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, who recorded their 20th match win of the season. The third seeds defeated Fabio Fognini and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-5, 6-2 in 75 minutes. From 5-5 in the first set, the duo won five of the next six games. The Austrian-Croatian...
Combining power and precision with a burgeoning confidence on the big stages, inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung is through to the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open for the first time. Experienced Czech 12th seed Tomas Berdych was the 21-year-old’s latest victim on Monday night. Unlike Chung’s previous match – in which he battled for nearly three hours to get past Dusan Lajovic – he cruised past Berdych 6-4, 6-4 in 83 minutes. It is his first victory in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with the Czech and the first time he had even taken a set. Chung had already tasted hard-court success on a big stage this season after he became the first South Korean...
Kevin Anderson put on a serving clinic to edge past Argentine Nicolas Kicker into the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday. The South African seventh seed sent down 22 aces to his opponent’s one in the 7-6(1), 7-6(3) result. Anderson, the 2017 US Open runner-up, has twice reached the quarter-finals in the Californian desert (2013 and 2014). He will look to extend his perfect 3-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against last year’s Indian Wells semi-finalist, No. 11 seed Pablo Carreno Busta (l. Wawrinka). Watch Full Match Replays The South African defeated the Spaniard in last year’s US Open semi-finals. His defeat of Kicker, No. 94 in the ATP Rankings, ended an impressive Indian Wells debut for the...
Taylor Fritz was inches away from losing in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open. If a whizzing inside-out forehand from best friend Reilly Opelka landed just marginally to the left, Fritz would have been out of the tournament in his opener. Instead, the #NextGenATP American survived. And after two more strong wins — the latest coming in the form of a nail-biting 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(1) victory on Monday evening against an in-form Fernando Verdasco — the 20-year-old is into the Round of 16 at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event for the first time. "To pull out a match whenever it's close like that can go either way. You're nervous," Fritz admitted. "It just makes the feeling...
