Briton Kyle Edmund cruised into an Indian Wells ATP Masters meeting with three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Portugal’s Gastao Elias.
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Djokovic will next face Australian Nick Kyrgios, a 6-3, 6-4 victor over Russian Alexander Zverev.
The out-of-sorts Djokovic has had a brutal draw in Indian Wells, having played – and ousted – 2009 US Open victor Juan Martin del Potro in the third round. “I played I think a solid match (today)”. “Throughout most of that second set, he was a better player”.
Rafael Nadal made light work of Argentina’s Guido Pella to secure a third-round tie against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
While Murray said all possible paths to the final were treacherous, he, like many, was mesmerized by the talent packed into the bottom quarter.
“I’m very excited”, said Federer.
“Knee is a thing of the past, which is great. I think that’s one thing that gets overlooked”, Kyrgios said. Suffering a shock loss to Sam Querrey in the final, therefore, Nadal is still a suspect at losing matches that he should be winning. I try to focus on my next round, and not look beyond that. I had a lot of motivation playing against the number 1. “If I play against Roger in the fourth round, it will be great, but I need to win another match to do it”.
Djokovic admitted that that one stung a little bit, especially as he was riding high holding all four Slam titles at the time. Nadal was the No. 32 seed but he prevailed in straight sets.
Nadal knows he’ll have to turn up the intensity if he wants to end a hard court title drought stretching back to 2014.
Meanwhile, Federer will square off with American Steve Johnson in the third round on Tuesday. The 18-time major champion breezed past 36-year-old Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-1 in 51 minutes.
Nadal won 80 percent of his first-serve points and three of five break points.
The Japanese fourth seed is yet to win a Masters title, losing in three finals, two of which came previous year in Miami and Toronto but he was far too strong for Muller, breaking serve on four occasions to wrap up a routine win in just 71 minutes. Dimitrov led by a break in the third and then had three match points at 4-5, 0-40 on Sock’s serve but was unable to finish the job.
After an evenly contested start, Nadal moved through the gears to take the first set in just 31 minutes, before a tighter second nearly went the distance. So it doesn’t matter if it’s the semis the final or actually the fourth round.
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This is the second match scheduled inside Stadium 1 following the fourth round women’s encounter between 21st seed Caroline Garcia, and the two-time Grand Slam champion and eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
