Rafael Nadal has stolen the Indian Wells headlines with his 19-match win streak, but Andrey Rublev is hot on his tail — and the pair is now one win apiece away from putting those streaks on the line in a championship showdown.

The seventh seed made it 13 consecutive wins with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Grigor Dimitrov on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open. One the heels of back-to-back ATP Tour titles in Marseille and Dubai, Rublev continued his stellar form to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals for the first time.

He never trailed in a 7-5, 6-2 win over 33rd seed Grigor Dimitrov on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open, earning a dominant victory in a battle of former junior World No. 1s. Should Rublev go on to win the title in Indian Wells, he will tie his career-long winning streak of 15.

“I played really well,” Rublev said. “Since the beginning, it was more about who would be the first one, who would start to lead the point, who would start to dictate to play more aggressive. Both of us would like to take our forehand and try to dictate, so it was just who’s going to be the first one.”

Rublev dropped just seven points on first serve in the contest, winning 81 per cent (29/36) of those points and dropping serve just once in the match. That break came at a crucial moment, with Dimitrov using a sweetly struck backhand pass to help prevent the fourth seed from serving out the opening set.

But Rublev answered with an immediate break back and found a higher gear to overwhelm the Bulgarian the rest of the way. His powerful baseline game proved too much for Dimitrov, who was powerless to stop the relentless attack.

After sealing the opening set with an ace — one of four in the match — Rublev raced to a 5-1 lead in set two behind a decisive run in which he won seven of eight games.

Dimitrov had only faced two break points and dropped serve just once in 31 service games entering the quarter-final, but Rublev managed four breaks on 10 chances in the match.

“Return here is one of the most important things,” he said. “If you can bring as many returns as possible [into the court], and then here with these conditions, in some moments it’s tough to serve. But this is for everyone.”

As in the opening set, Dimitrov fought admirably with his back against the wall, saving a match point to hold for 5-2 in a four-deuce game — the longest of the 90-minute contest. He then brought up a break point in the match’s final game before Rublev closed the door.

Both men entered the quarter-final match without dropping a set in the tournament, and Rublev made it eight on the trot by overwhelming the Bulgarian to reach his fourth ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in the past 12 months. He is still seeking his first title at that level after reaching the final in Monte Carlo and Cincinnati in 2021.

After knocking off one 2021 Indian Wells semi-finalist, he could face another in 20th seed Taylor Fritz in the next round. The American takes on Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic next on Stadium 1.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury continued their quest for a second ATP Masters 1000 title as a team on Thursday with a 7-6(4), 7-5 quarter-final victory over Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski at the BNP Paribas Open.

The second seeds clinched their maiden trophy at this level in Toronto last season, before they captured their second Grand Slam title together at the US Open in September.

The American-British tandem are now just two wins away from adding to their trophy haul in Indian Wells after triumphing over the seventh seeds in one hour and 39 minutes.

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Ram and Salisbury were strong on serve throughout, winning 78 per cent (36/46) of points behind their first delivery and saving the one break point they faced according to Infosys ATP stats to advance.

Koolhof and Skupski have enjoyed a remarkable season so far, winning three tour-level titles as a team. But for once, they were unable to find their best level in the crucial moments against Ram and Salisbury.

The 2020 Australian Open champions will next play Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin after the unseeded tandem overcame Aslan Karatsev and Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4 in 64 minutes.

Mexican Gonzalez and Frenchman Roger-Vasselin are teaming for the first time this week at the hard-court tournament in California.

Spanish legend Rafael Nadal will face #NextGenATP countryman Carlos Alcaraz in a popcorn semi-final clash at the BNP Paribas Open after battling through a tricky assignment against Nick Kyrgios on Thursday.

Nadal’s hard-fought three-set win over the Australian extended his career-best start to a season to 19-0. The victory means the World No. 4 will next meet 18-year-old prodigy Alcaraz – who he holds enormous respect for – in his toughest test yet in Indian Wells.

“He has a great team next to him,” Nadal said on Alcaraz in his post-match press conference. “I think he will be unstoppable in terms of his career. He has all the ingredients. He has the passion. He’s humble enough to work hard. He’s a good guy. He reminds me a lot of myself when I was 17 or 18-years-old. I think he has the passion. He has the talent and the physical components.”

Saturday’s match between the Spaniards will be the second ATP Head2Head meeting between the pair, with Nadal triumphing 6-1, 6-2 in Madrid last spring. However, since then, Alcaraz has captured tour-level titles in Umag and Rio de Janeiro, lifted the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals trophy and cracked the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings.

While Nadal admits Alcaraz is likely to cause him problems on court in the coming months, he is delighted to see a young Spanish star emerging on Tour.

“I am super happy. He is going to be a great rival for now and for the next couple of months, without a doubt,” Nadal said. “But thinking and being selfish, it’s great. To have such a star from my country [is amazing], because for the tennis lovers, we’re going to enjoy [watching] an amazing player fight for the most important titles for many years.

“It is fantastic for the tennis lovers and he’s a countryman and he’s a great guy. I like him. I wish him all the very best. Probably not on Saturday when he plays against me, but in general.”

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This season Nadal has clinched a remarkable three tour-level titles, including a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open. The 35-year-old is aiming to win his fourth Indian Wells trophy this week (2007, 09, 13) and was pleased with his performance against Kyrgios.

“It was a good tennis match,” Nadal said. “Another fighting match that I needed to play well to go through. I enjoy these kinds of matches. I enjoy the challenges. And today, I was able to keep going and that makes me happy and makes me proud.”

Carlos Alcaraz set up his second career meeting with Rafael Nadal with a high-quality and intense 6-4, 6-3 win over Cameron Norrie in the Indian Wells quarter-finals on Thursday night.

Already the youngest BNP Paribas Open men’s quarter-finalist since a 17-year-old Michael Chang in 1989, Alcaraz is now the second-youngest semi-finalist in tournament history behind only Andre Agassi, also 17, in 1988.

The 18th-seeded Spaniard hit 31 winners to just 14 unforced errors to knock off the in-form Briton, who was a plus-eight in the winners to errors count himself. A cleanly played and tightly contested matchup saw 10 breaks of serve and five in each set, with Alcaraz falling behind early in both. 

“It’s so special to be able to play my first semi-final in a Masters1000 here in Indian Wells, in Tennis Paradise,” Alcaraz said post-match. “I’m enjoying every single second. I have no words to describe my feelings right now.”

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After twice trailing by a break in the opener, the 18-year-old won the last three games and pocketed the set by taking his third break point in a five-deuce game — the longest of the night.

Alcaraz again erased Norrie’s strong start in set two as he broke in each of his last three return games before serving out the match to love. On the whole, Alcaraz broke six times in nine return games.

THAT is how you break, folks 💥@alcarazcarlos03 #IndianWells pic.twitter.com/CaGRGnEkzi

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 18, 2022

He has now earned a rematch against Nadal, after his compatriot won their first ATP Head2Head meeting, 6-1, 6-2, in Madrid last spring.

That first meeting came on Alcaraz’s 18th birthday on the Spanish clay. Now on the American hard courts, the youngster feels ready to give the 36-time Masters 1000 champion a bigger challenge.

“I remember that I played really, really nervous,” he said of the Madrid matchup. “I think this time I trained with him a couple of times, I know more how to play against him. I think now it’s going to be a little bit different this match. Obviously he can destroy me again, but I doin’t know what is going to happen.”

Alcaraz and Nadal are a combined 31-1 in 2022, with Alcaraz at 12-1 and Nadal a perfect 19-0. The younger Spaniard won the Rio de Janeiro title in February, while Nadal has won three tour-level titles on the year, including the Australian Open.

Are you ready for this?@RafaelNadal v. @alcarazcarlos03 @BNPPARIBASOPEN | #IndianWells pic.twitter.com/w4YpOi5x3S

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 18, 2022

When both men reaching the Indian Wells quarter-finals, it gave Spain multiple men at that stage of the BNP Paribas Open for the first time since 2015, when Nadal and Feliciano Lopez lost in the last eight. Alcaraz and Nadal are the first Spanish pair to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals in the tournament’s 46-year history.

“It’s tough to play against Rafa but at the same time I will enjoy the moment, I will enjoy the match,” Alcaraz previewed. “It’s not every day you play against your idol. I’m going to be happy even if I lose that match. but I am focused right now to play my best against Rafa and be able to take my chances.”

Nick Kyrgios has already beaten Rafael Nadal three times in their now nine-match ATP Head2Head history. But this one would have been special, given Nadal’s perfect start to the 2022 season.

Instead, after serving for a one-set lead and creating two break points early in the final set, he dropped a heartbreaking 7-6(0), 5-7, 6-4 decision to the Spaniard, who improved to 19-0 on the season.

“That one hit pretty hard. I felt like, honestly, I was the one to end the streak,” Kyrgios reflected in his post-match press conference.

The Aussie entered the match full of confidence following his first Top 10 win in more than two years against Casper Ruud. He had not dropped a set or a service game on the way to the quarter-finals, and had no problem keeping up that form at the start of the match against 21-time Grand Slam champion Nadal.

“I felt like I was playing well. I felt like I did everything right in the first set that I planned to do. I sat down with my coach—myself—and I had a game plan, and everything was working,” said Kyrgios, who does not travel with a coach. “Two points away from the first set, I don’t know how he got out of that game. 5-4, 30/15, just kept replaying that point over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.”

Kyrgios was on the verge of two set points before Nadal stayed alive with a desperate scramble, floating a hopeful lob just inside the sideline to get back in the rally. That was the start of three straight points for the Spaniard, who ended a run of 30 consecutive holds and nine straight break points saved for Kyrgios at the tournament. 

After a late-set collapse that culminated in a point penalty to close a shutout tie-break loss, Kyrgios regrouped admirably to force a decider. Despite the result, Kyrgios took pride in his performance and his part in a marquee matchup on one of the game’s biggest stages.

“That’s what you dream about as a little kid, to play these events against Nadal and the hype around it,” he explained after “episode nine” of their rivalry. “I don’t see any other matches getting this kind of hype. As soon as we matched up against each other, social media’s going nuts… I think it lived up to it.

“And it was an amazing atmosphere. I knew the crowd was obviously, every time you play against Rafa, Roger, or Novak, the crowd’s going to be heavily in their favour, and I know that, and I’m not asking them to go for me. I like that kind of villain, underdog-type feeling. But again, it was an amazing atmosphere. I’m never going to take that for granted. Rafa’s a champion. So, you know, I think we’ve got an enormous amount of respect for each other. At the net, we said words, and I can feel it. We respect each other and he’s a hell of a player.”

Kyrgios later elaborated on that mutual respect, alluding to some past barbs exchanged between the two:

“I feel like we respect each other. I think he’s the greatest of all time as of now,” he said. “I really in this game have never said anything that bad, compared to if I went through my

comments right now, like that’s what I’m getting on a daily basis.

“I’ve never said anything like that to Rafael Nadal. I’ve had a couple comments and he’s had a couple comments back. And, you know, it’s good for the sport, that rivalry. Like, I’m Nick Kyrgios and I’m a rival to Rafael Nadal. How? Like how is that possible?

“And I think it’s exciting for the sport, do you know what I mean? Like that’s what people should be talking about. And my career’s 1/40th of what he’s done and we’re rivals because of that little back and forth that was nothing.”

Perhaps it’s Kyrgios’ recognition of Nadal’s greatness that will make this loss sting so much. In press, he recalled watching the Spaniard win Grand Slams as a kid, and getting autographs from the likes of Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Now that he’s become accustomed to competing against those legends, the 26-year-old relishes his role as one of the great entertainers in the modern game — even if some purists bristle at his brash attitude. Who else would get into a spat with Ben Stiller at deuce in a deciding set, as Kyrgios did with the actor sitting front and center on Thursday in Indian Wells?

And even though Kyrgios had his customary ‘dialogue’ with the chair umpire and some issues with the crowd in the quarter-final matchup, he never lost focus in the contest and forced Nadal to come up with another classic comeback to advance.

“I feel like I’m helping the sport, I’m creating more attention and everyone who thinks that I’m bad for the sport is just an idiot,” he snapped. “Like they have obviously got no idea. No idea.”

Kyrgios, who will move to the brink of the Top 100 with his quarter-final result, will again compete as a wild card in Miami next week.

Rafael Nadal overcame a monstrous start and a measured comeback attempt from Nick Kyrgios with an assured finish on Thursday in the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals.

With the 7-6(0), 5-7, 6-4 victory, Nadal extends his perfect season to 19-0 and improves his ATP Head2Head record against Kyrgios to 6-3, including wins in their past three meetings. A three-time champion in Indian Wells, Nadal returns to the semi-finals for the 11th time in the desert.

Down an early break in the opening set, Nadal broke the Kyrgios serve for the first time in the tournament as the Aussie served for the set at 5-4. The Aussie wild card had held in each of his 30 previous service games, saving nine break points on the way to the quarter-finals.

That break changed the colour of the match, as Kyrgios grew frustrated and Nadal began to repel his opponent’s power with greater success. A shutout tie-break ended on a point penalty for an audible obscenity, Kyrgios’ late outburst underscoring the extent of the turnaround to close the set. 

But the Aussie steadied impressively in the second, dominating on serve and worrying Nadal by taking the initiative on the return throughout the set. The first break point of the set doubled as a set point for Kyrgios, who tracked down a drop shot and flicked a high backhand volley past Nadal to level the match in style.

A tight start to the final set included a short but testy exchange between Kyrgios and actor Ben Stiller, who was sitting front row center: “Are you any good at tennis?” Kyrgios remarked.

Soon after, Nadal earned his second break of the match on a double fault to lead 4-3. Two love holds gave him the victory in two hours and 46 minutes.

Nadal will next face the winner of the evening quarter-final between 12th seed Cameron Norrie and 19th seed Carlos Alcaraz.

More to follow…