Danil Medvedev cruised past Tommy Paul 6-4 6-0 to reach the quarter final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. The match was delayed by rain for nearly four hours
Medvedev improved to 4-1 in his head-to-head matches against Paul, who beat his Russian rival in Rome last year.
Medvedev converted six of his eight break point to reach his 80thtour level quarter final and his 22nd at Masters 1000 level.
Medvedev raced out to a 4-0 lead with two breaks in the second and fourth games. Paul pulled both breaks back to draw level to 4-4. Medvedev broke again in the tenth game to win the first set after Paul made a pair of forehand errors. Medvedev broke in the second and fourth games to seal the second set 6-0 with another break on his third match point.
“We’ve actually had up and down matches so far that we’ve played,” said Medveded. The first one was really close, then he beat me easy and now I managed to beat him a bit easier. I’m happy with my game. It’s not easy to play here. Breaks of serve — of course we still win more serves than we lose — but breaks of serves don’t mean much here. So even when he came back in the first, I was like, ‘Try pushing, try going further.’ I managed to raise my level during the match, so I’m pretty happy about it.”, said Medvedev.
Medvedev set up a quarter final match against Arthur Fils, who beat Marcos Giron 6-2 2-6 6-3 to reach his first Masters 1000 quarter final. Fils has become the second player to reach a quarter final at Masters 1000 level after Jakub Mensik in Shanghai last October.
Fils broke twice in the third and eighth games to win the first set 6-2. Giron earned two breaks in the third and seventh games and sealed the second set 6-2 on his third set point.
Fils earned his only break of the third set in the second game. The Frenchman held on his next service games and sealed the win on his first match point.
