The third day of action at the ATP Indian Wells event sees the seeded players enter the BNP Paribas Open as the opening Masters 1000 tournament of the year continues and elevates itself in terms of status on Friday.
The seeded players on show on Friday will all come up against an unseeded player who played on Wednesday so it will be interesting to see whether the competitive edge creates a number of surprises or if the seeds come through.
Stadium 1
We have three men’s matches on the main stadium court on Friday and two of them come along in the opening two matches. It is the US Open finalist Casper Ruud who is the first seed to take to the court. He meets a man we are used to seeing as a seed in Diego Schwartzman. When they are done Australian Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas begins his quest for the title when he takes on Jordan Thompson. We then have to wait for the night session for the other match from the men’s draw. That sees the man on a lengthy unbeaten run, Daniil Medvedev, up against the home player Brandon Nakashima.
Stadium 2
Just the two matches take place from the men’s draw over on Stadium 2 on Friday. Two women’s matches start out the play and the first men’s game closes out the day session. That will see Alexander Zverev looking to continue his return to the top of the rankings when he meets Pedro Cachin. It is the night session for the other men’s match and the second game in the evening when two Americans take to the court as Frances Tiafoe goes up against Marcos Giron.
Stadium 3
Three more men’s matches come along over on Stadium 3 on Friday and it is the men who begin the action on this court. The 2021 champion Cameron Norrie starts us off when he takes on Tung-Lin Wu in a match the Brit will be expected to win given his recent form. We have to wait for the night session for the other two matches from the men’s draw. The first of those sees Matteo Berrettini going up against Taro Daniel before Andrey Rublev meets the fast improving Jiri Lehecka to round off the day’s play.
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Best of the Rest
There aren’t too many other men’s matches around the grounds on Friday but those that do take place will all have a seeded player involved in it. Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Shapovalov should draw in decent crowds over on Stadium 4 while Karen Khachanov and Roberto Bautista Agut are among the players who will be starting out their campaign over on Stadium 5. Botic van de Zandschulp and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will be out on Stadium 7.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of the third day of action but the price on Jiri Lehecka to beat Andrey Rublev can’t be ignored, especially when the Czech beat the Russian in Doha just last month. That was their second meeting and the other one, in Belgrade last year, went the distance when Lehecka was nothing like the improved player he has been over the last few months or so. 13/8 could be a big price.
Rublev made the semi-final here last year but that was the first real contribution he has made to the tournament and obviously comes in here having not played a match this week whereas Lehecka has played a game and won it very well against an Arthur Rinderknech who offered up a pretty decent level himself that night. The slower night conditions probably aren’t going to do the Czech any harm and if he serves well he should run Rublev close if not actually beat him.
Tips
Back J.Lehecka to beat A.Rublev for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Betfred
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