INDIAN WELLS: Stefanos Tsitsipas’s hopes of taking over the world number one ranking with an Indian Wells title ended in a 7-6(0) 4-6 7-6(5) second-round loss to Australian Jordan Thompson on Friday. The Greek battled back in the second and pumped up the crowd ahead of the third set tie-break. But overly aggressive play in it, including a forehand on match point that missed the line by the slimmest of margins, was his undoing. A beaming Thompson fired a ball high into the air in celebration after he notched his first win over Tsitsipas in three career meetings and second over a top 10 player. Earlier, Briton Cameron Norrie cruised past Taiwan’s Tung-lin Wu 6-2 6-4. Norrie, the 2021 champion, broke Wu four times en route to the win and will next face either Italy’s Matteo Berrettini or Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel.
The 10th seed is off to a terrific start this year having beaten world number two Carlos Alcaraz in the Rio Open final last month to claim his fifth singles title. Norrie’s win comes a day after unseeded Britons Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu reached the second round at the ATP and WTA 1000 event in the Southern California desert with gutsy wins. Norrie will face qualifier Taro Daniel after the Japanese player rallied to upset 20th seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy 7-6(5) 0-6 6-3 in the evening session. Norwegian Casper Ruud’s serve-forehand one-two punch proved too much for Diego Schwartzman as the third seed advanced 6-2 6-3 over a player who has given him trouble in the past. Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev as well as American Frances Tiafoe all breezed into the third round with comprehensive straight sets wins in the evening session.
On the women’s side, second seed Aryna Sabalenka needed just over an hour to dispatch Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina 6-2 6-0 as the Australian Open champion improved to 14-1 on the year. The Belarusian next faces Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko. Players from Belarus and Russia are once again playing under neutral flags at the tournament due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Swiss Jil Teichmann upset her doubles partner and countrywoman Belinda Bencic 3-6 6-3 6-3 on the Tokyo Olympic champion’s 26th birthday to reach the third round for the first time. Third seeded American Jessica Pegula roared back to beat Italy’s Camila Giorgi 3-6 6-1 6-2 under the lights on center court to set up a third round showdown with Russia’s Anastasia Potapova. Elsewhere, Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko upset Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6 6-2 6-2, Latvian Jelena Ostapenko defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-5 3-6 6-2 and Czech Barbora Krejcikova breezed past Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska 6-1 6-2.