The BNP Paribas Open gets underway on Wednesday when the ATP Indian Wells tournament opens up with a range of first round matches with unseeded players meeting with the sole aim of picking up a win and setting up a clash with a seed later in the week.
We have to wait until Friday for the seeded players and truly form horses to come to the party but we still have a few household favourites to keep us entertained throughout the course of the play on Wednesday.
Stadium 1
We have to wait for a women’s match to conclude in the main stadium before the men come out to play but when they do the last two matches of the day session take place on this court with two home players opening up the show when Christopher Eubanks goes up against the wildcard Brandon Nakashima. When they are done Andy Murray will be on court, potentially for the final time in Indian Wells. David Goffin will be the man looking to ensure that is the case. The other match comes in the night session and that will be after a women’s match. When it comes along the home player J.J. Wolf meets the qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Stadium 2
That means there are just the two men’s matches on the Stadium 2 court, one in the day session and one in the night one. The day session begins with a match from the ATP draw as Thanasi Kokkinakis meets Marcos Giron with the reward for the winner being a date with the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in round two. We have to wait until the start of the night session for the other men’s match on Wednesday. That sees a man who has a Masters 1000 title under his belt in Borna Coric, meeting the Austrian player Sebastian Ofner.
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Stadium 3
Just the two men’s games take place out on Stadium 3 on Wednesday and they both come in the night session with the day session made up of three women’s matches. When the night time arrives it will be Jordan Thompson who takes to the court when he goes up against the Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang. When they are done we have a clash between a wildcard and a qualifier to close out the show on Wednesday as Jakub Mensik meets Seongchan Hong with the home player Ben Shelton waiting for the winner in the second round.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty more matches from the ATP draw on the outside courts. British fans will be interested in Stadium 4 where Jack Draper opens up the show before the exciting Luca Van Assche will follow him and there is a juicy clash between Dusan Lajovic and Emil Ruusuvuori on that court to enjoy as well. Dominik Koepfer and Alexei Popyrin head up the action over on Stadium 5 with Denis Kudla also on that court while Taro Daniel and Lucas Pouille can both be seen on Stadium 7.
Betting
I’m not going to go too mad on the opening day of the tournament but even when Andy Murray wins he seems to have to give up a pint of blood to do it and I just wonder if the slightly more confident David Goffin will get the better of him on Wednesday. Like Murray, Goffin hasn’t pulled up many trees on the main circuit in 2024 but he has been winning plenty of matches in qualifying competitions for tournaments which at least offers up some momentum.
Murray is 2-6 for competitive matches on the tour this season, with one of those wins coming against Denis Shapovalov, who like Goffin has slid down the rankings over the last couple of years. It has generally taken a decent player to beat Goffin when he has got into the main draw and while Murray definitely has the credentials to do it, this has never been his favourite tournament and if Goffin gets into the grind of it I think he’s value to come out on top here.
Tips
Back D.Goffin to beat A.Murray for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back him here:
