Indian Wells (United States) (AFP) – Russia’s Daniil Medvedev shook off a day of rain delays to beat Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday and reach the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, where he’s vying to improve on runner-up finishes the past two years. Taking the court around 10:00 pm, four hours after he was slated to open the night session on Stadium Court, Medvedev took full advantage of Paul’s 31 unforced errors.
“It wasn’t an easy preparation,” Medvedev said. “We both were here early and then rain, rain, rain. I think we both went in rusty, he a little bit more than I did.” Paul had his opportunities, rallying after Medvedev jumped to a 4-0 lead to win four straight games. But Medvedev won the next eight—pocketing the first set on a pair of Paul forehand errors then racing through the second to seal it with one final break of the American’s serve. “Pretty strange score,” Medvedev said. “Whoever won some games won them in a row.”
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Medvedev, who fell to Carlos Alcaraz in each of the last two finals, next faces France’s Arthur Fils, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 winner over American Marcos Giron in a match halted for more than three hours by rain in the first set.
Women’s defending champion Iga Swiatek had to wait out a near-hour delay before getting started, but once she did, she produced another brutally efficient 6-1, 6-1 victory over Karolina Muchova, beating the worst of the weather. The world number two from Poland needed just 57 minutes to put away Muchova, who took her to three sets in the 2023 French Open final. Swiatek, the 2022 and 2024 winner, didn’t face a break point as she continued her bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.
She said the weather was an extra spur to finish it quickly, especially after the rain came again near the end of the contest. “On the last two games, it was a bit slippery already, but I really wanted to finish. So I kind of played more risky, but the shots were still in,” said Swiatek, who will face China’s Zheng Qinwen for a place in the semi-finals. Zheng rolled past Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2.
The off-and-on showers caused multiple delays.
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, ranked 23rd, shrugged off the three-hour stoppage at the start of her third set to upset world number four Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. “Definitely was not easy with all the conditions and the rain, stop and start,” Svitolina said. “Warmed up maybe like 10 times today.” Svitolina booked a meeting with 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, who beat 2023 Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2. Andreeva has now won two matches in three weeks against world number seven Rybakina—a former Wimbledon champion. She beat Rybakina in the semi-finals in Dubai on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.
In other men’s matches, Denmark’s Holger Rune beat in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4. Greece’s Tsitsipas was coming off his first title in nearly a year in Dubai last month, but Rune, ranked 13th, snapped the world number nine’s seven-match ATP win streak with an aggressive game that included 22 winners. Up 4-3 in the second set, Rune saved a break point with a dazzling between-the-legs shot, racing back to the baseline after a Tsitsipas lob and batting the tweener that dropped perfectly to deny the Greek. “Mentally, I was very, very good,” Rune said. “I think that’s what made the difference—how composed I was able to stay.”
Rune next faces 43rd-ranked Tallon Griekspoor, who upset top seed Alexander Zverev in the second round. Griekspoor also made a belated start and waited out a second-set delay in his 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 victory over Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki.
© 2024 AFP
