INDIAN WELLS, United States, (MILLAT/APP/AFP)
– Eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem powered into the fourth round of the ATP Indian Wells Masters on Monday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Mischa Zverev.
World number nine Thiem, riding high after winning the title in Rio, is in the fourth round in the California desert for the second straight year.
He next faces either big-serving American John Isner or France’s Gael
Monfils, who were to wrap up the night’s action under the lights on Stadium
Court.
Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka headlined the men’s action on Monday, taking a 4-0 head-to-head record into his third-round clash with 28th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Germany’s Kohlschreiber is coming off the 400th ATP match win of his
career, achieved when Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov retired hurt from their
second-round encounter.
World number three Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, is the
highest-ranked player remaining in the top-half of the draw after world number one Andy Murray’s shock loss to 129th-ranked qualifier Vasek Pospisil in the second round.
With superstars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all jammed into the bottom quarter of the draw, Wawrinka’s path looks wide open.
But after his second-round win over Paolo Lorenzi, the Swiss star said the dearth of big names in his section made little difference to his chances of improving on his previous best quarter-final appearance at Indian Wells.
“With me, it doesn’t depend on the draw,” he said. “There is no easy draw and no tough draw. It will depend more on the way I’m going to play or the way I’m going to feel.”
Pospisil, the 2015 Wimbledon doubles champion who was ranked as high as 25th in the world in 2014, will try to keep the momentum going when he takes on a fellow qualifier on Monday Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.
Japanese lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka will also be vying for a
fourth-round berth, taking on 13th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.