The first Masters tournament of the tennis year takes place over the remainder of this week and the entirety of the next one as he best in the men’s game head to Indian Wells for the ATP Masters 1000 event BNP Paribas Open.
This is the first big event since the Australian Open and it was won by Juan Martin del Potro last year. Sadly injury prevents him from defending the title so we are guaranteed a different champion this year.
Recent Winners
2018 – Juan Martin del Potro
2017 – Roger Federer
2016 – Novak Djokovic
2015 – Novak Djokovic
2014 – Novak Djokovic
2013 – Rafael Nadal
2012 – Roger Federer
2011 – Novak Djokovic
2010 – Ivan Ljubicic
2009 – Rafael Nadal
The Format
This tournament is in keeping with the usual Masters 1000 format. 96 players will begin the tournament with 32 seeded players who receive byes into the second round with the other 64 men battling it out to face a seed in that stage of the tournament. Every match in the event is the best of three sets and there is a normal tiebreak in the final set. The draw has been announced and is played out as drawn in the bracket.
Top Quarter
Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic heads the world rankings and as such he is the number one seed this week as he goes in search of a sixth Indian Wells title. He generally has a comfortable looking draw although last week’s Acapulco winner Nick Kyrgios could be a danger. The other seeds in this quarter are Gael Monfils, Marco Cecchinato, Borna Coric, Nikoloz Basilashvili, Gilles Simon and Dominic Thiem.
The qualifiers haven’t all been allocated at this stage of proceedings but there are a few players who are known among the unseeded men in this quarter such as Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Philipp Kohlschreiber and big Ivo Karlovic but if Djokovic sees off Kyrgios in round three you would think he will go most of the way.
Second Quarter
Alexander Zverev is the top seed in the second quarter this week and with Kevin Anderson coming back from injury there is an obvious case to be made for the big German to go deep in this competition. There are six other seeds who will be looking to make their own cases here however and they include Australian Open semi-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. Grigor Dimitrov, Alex de Minaur, Milos Raonic, Roberto Bautista Agut and Laslo Djere make up the seeds here.
British eyes will be on this section with Cameron Norrie in the field in this quarter while Sam Querrey and Jeremy Chardy are still capable of big things even in tournaments of this kind. John Millman and Mischa Zverev are two other men who will be looking to push on and have a significant tournament here.
Third Quarter
The 2017 champion Roger Federer heads the seeding in this quarter this week and he will be expected to make it through to the semi-final. He didn’t look brilliant in Melbourne but he did win in Dubai last week. Kei Nishikori is the next highest seed looking to come through with Lucas Pouille, semi-finalist in Melbourne, Denis Shapovalov, Marin Cilic, Fabio Fognini, Kyle Edmund and Marton Fucsovics make up the seeded players.
Andreas Seppi is one of the bigger names of the players who are unseeded in this quarter this week. He is joined in that regard by Frances Tiafoe, Steve Johnson, Taylor Fritz, Tennys Sandgren and Adrian Mannarino in what looks like being a pretty competitive section although one which might lack depth if something happens to Federer early doors.
Bottom Quarter
It is all about Rafael Nadal in this bottom part of the draw. The Australian Open finalist will be looking for a fourth title of his own here this week and will be expected to go deep in these slower conditions. John Isner is the next highest seed on show with Guido Pella, Pablo Carreno Busta, Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev, David Goffin and Diego Schwartzman being the other seeds on show.
Ryan Harrison will be a known name to the local crowds this week while Joao Sousa was previously ranked a lot higher than he currently is. Feliciano Lopez and Tomas Berdych are big players of the past but only one of them will come past the first round as they meet each other with Ernests Gulbis the other recognisable name on show.
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Betting
I’ll go with an outright in both halves of the draw this week with my main bet coming in the Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas. He lit up the Australian Open earlier in the season and he comes in here having landed the title in Marseille where he didn’t lose a set, and only losing out to Federer in Dubai last week. He is clearly in insanely good form right now and while he will have to deal with Djokovic to get to the final, should Kyrgios not do it for him, he won the only previous meeting between the two. Given how well he is playing at the minute it is impossible to ignore the 40/1 on him.
I’ll take a bit of a chance on the other losing semi-finalist in Melbourne in Lucas Pouille. The Frenchman clearly played some excellent tennis there and although he hasn’t been out too much since that is not necessarily a bad thing as this becomes a pretty hectic event through the middle of it. He will no doubt have been inspired by seeing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils pick up titles this year and will want to do similar. If Federer exits this event at any stage Pouille’s draw could look a lot tougher. At 750/1, a completely insulting price, I’ll pay to see how he goes.
Tips
Back S.Tsitsipas to win BNP Paribas Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 41.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Back L.Pouille to win BNP Paribas Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 751.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
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