The opening day of the BNP Paribas Open sees a number of first round matches being played out as the ATP Indian Wells tournament gets underway with players looking to set up a clash with a seed in the first Masters 1000 event of the season.
We have to wait until Friday for the seeded players and the bigger names to come to the party in this tournament but there are no shortage of household names looking to make an early case for a big week when they take to the court on Wednesday.
Stadium 1
We have three matches on the main stadium court on the opening day but we have to wait for a women’s match to be completed but when the men do come along we have two games in the day session starting with the clash between Yunchaokete Bu and the home wildcard Nishesh Basavareddy before another of the local wildcards closes out the day session when Reilly Opelka meets Roman Safiullin. The last of the men’s matches on the main court comes in the second of the night matches when Alexander Bublik faces the Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki.
Stadium 2
Just the two matches take place on the second stadium court at Indian Wells on Wednesday and they open up each session. We start out on Stadium 2 with the Japanese star Kei Nishikori looking to make it into the second round when he goes up against the Spanish player Jaume Munar. We have to wait until the start of the night session for the second match and all British eyes will be on this one as Cameron Norrie takes on the man who made it through to the last 16 a year ago in Luca Nardi.
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Stadium 3
There are only two matches on the Stadium 3 court from the ATP Tour as well but in a weird bit of scheduling we have to wait right through until the night session for them to come along. When they do it will be the French player Corentin Moutet opening up the night session when he faces off against Jordan Thompson before the action on this part of the grounds concludes with a clash between the Chinese star Zhizhen Zhang and the Polish qualifier Kamil Majchrzak in what could be one of the best matches on the day.
Best of the Rest
Three men’s matches take place over on Stadium 4 on Wednesday for those who have a grounds pass or access to the streams of all the courts. Alexander Vukic and the former finalist Nikoloz Basilashvili are two of the star attractions on the court but it also hosts the standout match between Miomir Kecmanovic and Tallon Griekspoor. There is also men’s action on Stadium 5 where Fabian Marozsan and Alexandre Muller are among those on show while Zizou Bergs and Christoopher O’Connell make up some of the schedule on Stadium 7.
Betting
With the new courts in Indian Wells this year I’m going to ease my way into the tournament and largely take a watching brief but I will go with one for the opening night which sees Reilly Opelka to beat Roman Safiullin. The Russian heads to Indian Wells bang out form and although he qualified for the tournament in Dubai recently, he didn’t beat anyone of note in qualifying and then failed to convert match points in another first round loss against Tallon Griekspoor.
It has to be said that Opelka has a wretched record in both of the Sunshine Slam events but there is talk that these newer courts are going to play quicker than the ones which went before them which will bring the Opelka serve right into play. He has the better form going into the match anyway having beaten Novak Djokovic in Brisbane at the start of the year and the likes of Cameron Norrie and Christopher Eubanks in the American events recently. I’d have him slightly shorter than he is on form, especially if the talk of the court speed rings true.
Tips
Back R.Opelka to beat R.Safiullin for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
