MY ACCOUNT
Matteo Berrettini survived a scare to eventually progress to the fourth round at the Indian Wells Masters on Tuesday.
The Italian sixth seed had to fight from 2-5 down in the second set and saved three set points, before powering through to triumph 6-4 7-5 over Lloyd Harris.
“I got a little bit nervous,” Berrettini said post-match. “I didn’t like how I handled the start of the second set. I let the anger get out a little bit, which helped. I found the right balance in order to break him in the important moment and then I had the momentum.”
The world number six found another level in reeling off five straight games, and will now face unseeded Miomir Kecmanovic, who accounted for Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(6-3) 7-5.
Taylor Fritz was also pushed by Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar, taking a third-set tiebreaker to progress to the fourth round.
The 20th-seeded was made to work for it in a match that lasted just under three hours, but Munar feel short in the clutch, with two unforced forehand errors in the closing tiebreak to give Fritz a three-point gap.
In Tuesday’s last game, Andrey Rublev showed rare composure to progress past Frances Tiafoe 6-3 6-4.
Neither got off to the best of starts, with Rublev and Tiafoe sharing service breaks in the opening four games of the first set. The characteristically volatile Rublev managed to regroup, though, and stayed calm even when Tiafoe got his home crowd on side.
Despite a low 67 percent on first serve, Rublev won 83 percent of those points, while Tiafoe did himself no favours with an even lower 58 percent first-serve rate.
Last-year’s semi-finalist will face 29th-seeded Alex de Minaur, who defeated Tommy Paul 7-6(6-2) 6-4.
The Australian world no. 31 faced immediate difficulty on service, with only his second service game going to eight consecutive deuces, after five saved break points. He eventually saw the match through, after breaking for 4-3 in the second set.
Fellow seeds Hubert Hurkacz and Grigor Dimitrov both went through relatively unscathed, with respective wins over Steve Johnson and Alexander Bublik.
Dimitrov will face John Isner, who saw past Diego Schwartzman 7-5 6-3 in Tuesday’s other result.
