ATP
Indian Wells
Daniil Medvedev won the first four and the final eight games against Tommy Paul on Tuesday night at the BNP Paribas Open to repeat the result from their semi-final showdown last year at Indian Wells.
In a 6-4, 6-0 victory that was delayed nearly four hours by rain, the fifth seed was pegged level after his opening burst but quickly regained control against the error-prone American.
Medvedev is through to the semi-finals for the third straight time at the ATP Masters 1000 after runner-up finishes in each of the past two years. The No. 6 in the ATP Rankings was playing his first Top 20 opponent this season in Paul, against whom he now holds a 4-1 ATP Head2Head record.
“We’ve actually had up and down matches so far that we’ve played,” said Medvedev, who lost to the American last year in Rome. “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 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.”
Medvedev converted six of eight break points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, making Paul pay for his 31 unforced errors. Through to his 80th tour-level quarter-final and his 22nd at the ATP Masters 1000 level, he will next face Arthur Fils.
“He plays good. I watched his matches here, he’s in good shape,” Medvedev said of the 20-year-old Frenchman.
“In quarter-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 you never get an easy match. We’ll try my best. We only played once [in Vienna in 2023], he was younger, so kind of a different matchup right now. I’ll need to be at my best to try to win.”
Fils defeated home favourite Marcos Giron 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. He is the second man born in 2004 or later to reach that stage at a Masters 1000 after Jakub Mensik in Shanghai last October.
In a winding road to the last eight, the Frenchman saved a match point against Lorenzo Musetti in the third round then navigated two rain delays and a partisan crowd to deny the comeback bid of Giron, a Southern California native.
Giron and Paul were among five Americans in the fourth round, the most since 2004 in Indian Wells. They were joined by Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and Ben Shelton, who all were scheduled to play on Wednesday.
