The first round of the BNP Paribas Open concludes on Friday when the second day of the ATP Indian Wells event takes place out on California as the last outdoor Masters 1000 event of the season continues across the grounds.
The seeded players don’t come into the tournament until Saturday but we still have plenty of relatively big names on show on Friday and some matches which should be competitive as spots in the second round are up for grabs.
Stadium 1
There are only two matches on the main stadium court from the men’s draw on Friday and there is very much the old and the new about them. We begin with the new but not until a couple of women’s matches have been played. When the men do take to the court it will be the man who excited us throughout the early stages of the US Open on show when Jenson Brooksby steps out onto court to face the Turkish qualifier Cem Ilkel. The other men’s match comes in the night session where Andy Murray will be looking to make the most of his wildcard into the event when he faces Adrian Mannarino.
Stadium 2
It is the men that get us up and running on the second show court on Friday when the home man Denis Kudla takes on the Chilean qualifier Alejandro Tabilo before the former US Open finalist Kevin Anderson looks to take advantage of the dry and humid conditions when he meets Jordan Thompson in the second match of the day. The third game on this court comes in the night session where Jack Sock will look to continue the revival in his career when he takes on a John Millman who will probably be pleased this one is at night.
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Stadium 3
It is the men who get things started over on the third court as well with Federico Delbonis taking on the Japanese player Yoshihito Nishioka in what promises to be quite a battle between two men who aren’t likely to give much to the other one. That is the only match on this court for the men in the day session but there are two more in the night session with Brandan Nakashima looking for a win on home soil in the first of them. He meets Federico Coria before the Hungarian ace Marton Fucsovics takes on Gianluca Mager.
Best of the Rest
There are some other tasty matches with new and old players dotted around the grounds on Friday mixed in with the women’s clashes and all the doubles action. There will be some attention on Stadium 4 when the exciting youngster Holger Rune is back on show while Albert Ramos-Vinolas is also in action on that court. Pablo Andujar, Christopher Eubanks and Jan-Lennard Struff are just some of the other players who will be on show throughout Friday.
Betting
John Millman has made successive quarter finals on the indoor courts coming into this tournament and while there isn’t really a standout win on his CV in those events, you can’t argue with winning momentum, something which Sock hasn’t been able to get because of injury. Even at the US Open which he was looking good again injury struck in the third round and he was forced to withdraw. He hasn’t played since and was only in an advisory role for the Laver Cup recently.
You have to wonder just how fit Sock is here and if he isn’t fully fit then the relentless Aussie, who will make him play more balls than he would like, especially with the conditions slowing right down at night, will feel very confident about his chances here. Even if Sock is fully fit I’m not sure the styles here work out in his favour, especially if Millman gets the Sock serve back. It is hard to see a potentially less than 100% Sock winning too many of the rallies so a clean match from the Australian should be enough here.
Tips
Back J.Millman to beat J.Sock for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with BetVictor
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