After losing his racquets in transit from Acapulco to Indian Wells, Hyeon Chung was not off to the best start in the Californian desert last week. Fortunately, following a Twitter plea to the airline, the 21-year-old South Korean was reunited with the tools to his trade in time for his second BNP Paribas Open campaign.

On Monday, that campaign steps up a notch when the No. 23 seed squares off against experienced Czech 12th seed Tomas Berdych for a place in the fourth round. It will be the third FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter between the pair with Berdych having claimed both prior matches in straight sets.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the 2018 BNP Paribas Open third round & vote for who you think will win! 
Federer vs Krajinovic | Thiem vs Cuevas | Verdasco vs Fritz

Chung is off to a 12-5 start to 2018 and has staked an early claim for a Nitto ATP Finals berth. After his breakout triumph to claim the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan to finish last season, he carried that momentum Down Under in January, when he became the first from his nation to reach a Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open.

It was in Melbourne he took down #NextGenATP German No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev and No. 14 seed Novak Djokovic en route before his run came to an end due to foot blisters during his semi-final clash with Roger Federer. In addition to a breakout Australian Open, he has reached the quarter-finals or better in four of five tournaments this year.

Berdych – making his 14th straight appearance in Indian Wells – has made a typically consistent start to the season with quarter-final showings at the Australian Open (l. to Federer) and in Rotterdam (W/O vs. Goffin) before a semi-final defeat to eventual champion Karen Khachanov in Marseille.

 Watch Full Match Replays

In his first tournament since his return to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, defending champion Roger Federer will bid to reach the fourth round when he takes on Serbian 25th seed Filip Krajinovic for the first time. After emerging from a stacked quarter that included Grand Slam champions Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro at last year’s BNP Paribas Open, No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem and No. 7 seed Kevin Anderson are the only two fellow Top 10 opponents left in Federer’s half at the third-round stage in 2018.

The Swiss – who has claimed the Australian Open and ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam – extended his unbeaten run this season to 13 straight matches after levelling his FedEx ATP Head2Head ledger at 1-1 with Argentine Federico Delbonis in the second round. He is assured of retaining the top spot should he reach the semi-finals in Indian Wells and would pull clear of Novak Djokovic’s Indian Wells tally should he claim a record sixth title.

After his thrilling upset of No. 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov, Spain’s Fernando Verdasco will look to reach the fourth round in Indian Wells for the third time when he meets #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz on Stadium 1. The 39th-ranked Verdasco beat the 20-year-old in their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.

Verdasco’s best result this season came on clay, where he reached the final of the Rio Open presented by Claro (l. to Schwartzman), while Fritz’s best tour-level result in 2018 is a Delray Beach Open quarter-final run (l. to Shapovalov). So far this week, Fritz has beaten fellow 20 year olds Reilly Opelka and No. 27 seed Andrey Rublev.

Thiem, one of the hardest-working players on the ATP World Tour, is already off to a 17-3 start on the year that includes the Argentina Open title in Buenos Aires (d. Bedene). He leads No. 30 seed Pablo Cuevas 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, but all of their meetings have come on clay courts. Their match is scheduled on Stadium 2 from 6 p.m. local time. Cuevas, 4-3 on hard courts in 2018, recorded a straight sets win over #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov and, just like Thiem, is attempting to improve upon a quarter-final run last season.

In the fourth match on Stadium 3, Anderson, with a 12-3 match record in 2018, takes on No. 94-ranked Nicolas Kicker for the first time. The 31-year-old South African picked up his fourth ATP World Tour crown at the New York Open (d. Querrey) and has finished runner-up in Pune (l. to Simon) and at the recent Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (l. to Del Potro). Kicker beat Jiri Vesely in the first round and No. 26 seed Damir Dzumhur in the second round.

Former champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert swept into the BNP Paribas Open second round on Sunday when the fifth seeds defeated Damir Dzumhur and Filip Krajinovic 6-1, 6-2 in just 46 minutes. From 1-1 in the first set, the French pair won nine straight games to a 4-0 advantage in the second set. They lost just nine of their service points.

Two years ago, Mahut and Herbert captured their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells with a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock in the final. They have since compiled a 6-1 record in Masters 1000 finals and are 11-5 overall in championship matches.

The team will now prepare to challenge Pablo Cuevas and Horacio Zeballos, who recovered from a set and 1-4 deficit to beat Santiago Gonzalez and Nicholas Monroe 6-7(5), 7-5, 10-2 in one hour and 32 minutes.

 Watch Full Match Replays

Roberto Bautista Agut and David Ferrer took their chances to knock out top seeds and last year’s finalist Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-4 in 70 minutes. Last year, Kubot and Melo won three Masters 1000 titles and finished the year at No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Team Rankings. Bautista Agut and Ferrer will next face Americans John Isner and Sock in the second round.

Elsewhere, sixth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, competing with confidence after picking up the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships crown (d. Cerretani-Paes) for a 17-4 team record in finals, knocked out Ryan Harrison and Max Mirnyi 7-6(5), 6-4 in 90 minutes. They now meet Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.

In one other doubles match, Fabio Fognini and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi overcame Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 to set up a match against in-form third seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, winners of three titles – including the Australian Open – from four finals in 2018.

Unseeded Portuguese player Joao Sousa is fast carving out a name for himself at this year’s BNP Paribas Open as the comeback king after pulling off an upset of No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev on Sunday. Seemingly down and out when his #NextGenATP German opponent held break points for 5-1 in the deciding set, Sousa reeled off the final five games of the match to reach the fourth round.

At No. 85 in the ATP Rankings and coming into his Indian Wells campaign on a four-match losing streak, Sousa’s run came as a bolt from the blue. His 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 triumph over Zverev marked his second straight comeback of the tournament.

In the first round, Sousa had beaten Mikhail Youzhny in a final-set tie-break after being down a break in both the second and the third sets. Against Zverev he recovered from 2-5 down in the opening set and 1-4 down in the third to prevail.

 Watch Full Match Replays

Watch Hot Shot: Sousa Threads A Forehand Pass

Sousa will next face 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic in the third round after the Canadian ended countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime’s fairytale run earlier on Sunday. Raonic prevailed 6-4, 6-4 in 79 minutes, launching nine aces, while turning aside three of four break points faced.

“I think generally I was consistent other than maybe those two games where I sort of just lost a little bit of discipline,” Raonic said. “But I made a lot of returns. I hit the ball well. Obviously I can be more and more aggressive, but I think that will come. I’ve got to put forth a good base first, which I’m starting to do and starting to serve a bit better as well. So I think the pieces are coming.

“Obviously today, this was my first match in a while and in a Masters 1000 where I want to do well. Against him, it also adds a little bit, so I’m happy how I dealt with that.”

With his back against the wall, Auger-Aliassime would not go down without a fight, producing a 0/40 opportunity with Raonic serving for the match. But a bevy of mammoth first serves from the big-hitting Canadian halted any hopes of a comeback. Raonic claimed just his second match win of the year in his comeback from a calf injury.

All dreams must come to an end, and for Auger-Aliassime it has been a week he will never forget in the California desert. At the age of 17, the budding #NextGenATP star became the first player born in the 2000s to qualify for an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event and followed that up with a first-round upset of compatriot Vasek Pospisil. He is also the youngest to win a match in Indian Wells since fellow 17-year-old Michael Chang in 1989.

“He’s always had a great discipline and great work ethic,” Raonic said about Auger-Aliassime. “And he’s a lot further along than where I was when I was his age by light years… He’s well beyond a 17-year-old physically. I don’t think I got to that point physically ever as far as maturity.”

In other action, a lucky loser has reached the third round in Indian Wells for the second straight year, as Israeli veteran Dudi Sela registered a 6-4, 6-4 upset of 21st seed Kyle Edmund. The 32-year-old, who fell to Evan King in the final round of qualifying on Wednesday, is enjoying his best result in his eighth tournament appearance.

Sela will next face qualifier Marcos Baghdatis, following the Cypriot’s 7-5, 6-4 dismissal of 14th seed and recent Rio de Janeiro champion Diego Schwartzman. Making his ninth appearance in Indian Wells, Baghdatis’s best result came on debut in 2006 when he reached the quarter-finals.

Baghdatis has not dropped a set in two ATP World Tour meetings against Sela, triumphing on the hard courts of Delray Beach nine years ago and also prevailing on the grass of Newport in 2016.