Alex De Minaur cruised past Hubert Hurkacz 6-4 6-0 in 75 minutes to reach the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. De Minaur has recorded his 50th Masters 1000 win. De Minaur had a first-round bye and a straight-set win over David Goffin in the second round.
De Minaur converted all four of his break points and saved the only break point he faced.
De Minaur broke for the first time in the seventh game of the first set to take a 4-3 lead before closing it out on his first set point.
De Minaur broke in the first, third and fifth games to take a bagel win in the second set.
De Minuar now leads 2-1 in his three head-to-head matches against Hurkacz. The Australian player has never advanced beyond the fourth round at Indian Wells.
De Minaur will face Francisco Cerundolo, who beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-4.
De Minaur reached the quarter final at the Australian Open and the final in Rotterdam.
“I got some pretty big, crucial first serves when I need them, which is always great to have, but my return games, I back myself against any server out there on tour, but I am going to give myself looks,a and I am going to apply that constant pressure and more often than not I give myself opportunities, I give myself a chance to break. So I can hold on to my serve, I am looking all right for the match”, said De Minaur.
Former Indian Wells champion and two-time Grand Slam finalist Taylor Fritz came back from one set down to beat Alejandro Tabilo 4-6 6-3 6-1 after 1 hour and 54 minutes. Fritz has improved to 4-0 in his head-to-head matches against Tabilo.
Tabilo broke serve in the second game to open up a 3-0 lead. Fritz broke back in the fifth game and held serve at 30 to draw level to 3-3. Tabilo earned his second break in the 10thgame to win the first set 6-4.
Fritz broke twice in the seventh and ninth games to win the second set 6-3.
Fritz earned two breaks in the second and sixth games to race out to a 5-1 lead in the third set. The US player sealed the win on his second match point after saving three break points.
“I just tried to cut down on the mistakes I was making more random, no reason mistakes than I possibly could have thought. Even with me giving him a lot of free points, I still felt it was pretty close for the first set and a half. I just had to clean it up and be more solid. I just needed to be more solid”, Fritz said in his on-court interview.
Fritz committed 43 unforced errors to 32 winners.
Fritz set up a fourth round match against Jack Draper.
Brandon Nakashima beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-2 6-4 in 75 minutes to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells for the first time in his career. Nakashima will face either Karen Nakashima or Ben Shelton in the fourth round.
Nakashima converted his second break point in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. The US player won three consecutive points from 15-30 down to break serve in the seventh game for 5-2 and served out the first set with a hold at love in the eighth game.
Nakashima broke serve at 30 in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Arnaldi saved two break points in the seventh game to hold serve for 3-4. Nakashima saved a break point before serving out the win on his first match point in the eighth game.
