The quarter finals of the BNP Paribas Open begin on Thursday evening when the top half of the ATP Indian Wells draw play down to the last four stage with two matches in the day session on the main court in California.
We were expecting to see the number one seed Daniil Medvedev but he bit the dust in the last 16 on Wednesday so instead we will see four players who suddenly have a huge opportunity in front of them to make a Masters 1000 final.
Cameron Norrie vs Diego Schwartzman
The opening quarter final sees two men who are enjoying decent seasons battling it out for a semi-final spot when the British ace Cameron Norrie takes on a Diego Schwartzman for whom this could yet be a defining week in his career.
Norrie has gone through a couple of three set epics to make it to this stage of the tournament and the same can be said for Schwartzman who had to overcome Dan Evans in a titanic struggle on Tuesday before seeing off Casper Ruud on Wednesday. You sense the player that recovers the best will go on and win this but if we look at their previous meetings they have all gone to a deciding set so it would be foolish to think this one will be won quickly, especially on these slow courters with neither man the most powerful on the tour. Norrie will become the British number one with a win here while Schwartzman has plenty to play for as well so the over 22.5 games at even money looks a good bet to me.
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Grigor Dimitrov vs Hubert Hurkacz
This is the match which was due to have the number one seed Daniil Medvedev competing in it but instead it is the man who beat him who lines up as Grigor Dimitrov takes on Hubert Hurkacz to face the winner of the first game in the semi-final on Saturday.
Hurkacz goes into this match knowing he is three wins away from completing the Sunshine double after already claiming the Miami Open title this season. He destroyed Aslan Karatsev in the previous round while Dimitrov was involved in an epic battle with Medvedev and doesn’t exactly have a lot of recovery time from which to build a shot at laying down a challenge to the Pole here. I fancy Hurkacz to win this just on the way the scheduling has been but Dimitrov has shown enough form to be respected so I’ll leave this one alone.
Tips
Back C.Norrie vs D.Schwartzman – Over 22.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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