The first round of the BNP Paribas Open concludes at the ATP Indian Wells tournament on Thursday if the weather plays much more cooperation than it did on Wednesday as the opening Masters 1000 event plays out day two in the desert.
This will be the last day of action before the seeded players enter the draw and while we wait for the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and others to come to the party, there are some household names for us on show throughout the play on Thursday.
Stadium 1
After three matches on the Stadium 1 court on Wednesday evening we are down to two on Thursday with one match taking place in the day session and the other one in the night session. The former Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka will be first up in the day session. He has an intriguing looking clash with Tomas Machac to overcome. We then wait until the first match of the night session for the second men’s match to take place. It was due to be the heavyweight clash between Milos Raonic and Rafael Nadal but with the Spaniard withdrawing the Canadian will now face the lucky loser Sumit Nagal.
Stadium 2
We have three matches over on Stadium 2 and the schedule there looks like a cracking one. We have to wait for Emma Raducanu to play her first round match and then the game involving Caroline Wozniacki to conclude but when the men come out to play we have a clash between Gael Monfils and Max Purcell to enjoy before the day session is rounded off by Alex Michelsen meeting Jaume Munar. The last men’s match comes in the night session as Botic van de Zandschulp goes up against Denis Shapovalov.
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Stadium 3
With the exception of the closing stages of a women’s match which couldn’t finish on the opening day, the schedule on Stadium 3 is all from the ATP draw and we get underway with Lorenzo Sonego meeting Miomir Kecmanovic and then once that women’s match concludes we will see Dan Evans looking to make it into the second round when he faces Roman Safiullin. J.J. Wolf was meant to be on the Stadium 1 court on Wednesday but the rain put paid to that and his match with Thiago Seyboth Wild has been moved to Stadium 3. The last two matches sees the wildcard Fabio Fognini taking on Bernabe Zapata Miralles before the schedule closes with Alexsandar Kovacevic facing Zhizhen Zhang.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of men’s matches on the outside courts on Thursday as the tournament looks to catch up after the surprise burst of rain on Wednesday evening. Jordan Thompson is one of the players who will take to Stadium 5 while over on Stadium 7 the likes of Lucas Pouille, Borna Coric and Arthur Fils will all be in first round action on a schedule in that part of the grounds which is very good for those who have access to a stream of it.
Betting
It is good to see Denis Shapovalov back in the game because he is an entertainer and someone that the sport can be excited by but he hasn’t exactly got many wins since his return from injury and I’m not convinced he is going to win his opening game here. He is a little disadvantaged by the slower conditions in Indian Wells. I think Shapo is much better on the faster courts where his shots get through the courts a lot easier and that isn’t the case here in Indian Wells.
Shapovalov has suffered a couple of heartbreaking defeats in recent times and he might find Botic van de Zandschulp hands him another. To be fair, the Dutchman isn’t pulling up as many trees as he should be at the minute but he did beat Adrian Mannarino in Dubai last week and it wasn’t that long ago he reached the last 16 of the Paris Masters where he had Tommy Paul among his victims. It isn’t by much but I do think that van de Zandschulp is slightly the more progressive of these two and the 13/10 price is big enough to lure me in on a match I see as no worse than 50:50 for the Dutchman.
Tips
Back B.van de Zandschulp to beat D.Shapovalov for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Bet365
