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.

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

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.”

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

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.”

FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION

📺 TV Schedule
🎾 Watch Live On Tennis TV
📱 Follow Live Scores On ATP Tour App
📧 Sign Up For Newsletters

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…

Few doubted Carlos Alcaraz would force his way to the top of the men’s game. But the pace of his progress – and rise inside the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings – continues to surprise to the upside.

And the 18-year-old Spaniard is already building a case to be known as one of the game’s best returners, especially in the key metric of breaking serve.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of breaking serve from specific point scores from 2015-2022 identifies that Alcaraz is already leading the Tour in several key categories that highlight his penchant for breaking serve. The data set includes players who have played 30 or more matches from the 2015 season up to Indian Wells in 2022.

Breaking From 0/15
1. C. Alcaraz = 51.8%
2. R. Nadal = 51.2%
3. D. Schwartzman = 50.0%

Alcaraz is one of only three players who is statistically favoured to win the game as the returner after winning just the opening point of the game. It’s a stunning statistic, especially considering that the Tour average sits at just 38.4 per cent. Alcaraz, Nadal and Schwartzman are the only three players to sit above 50 per cent in this specific match metric.

Breaking From 0/30
1. C. Alcaraz = 77.8%
2. R. Nadal = 72.9%
3. D. Schwartzman = 69.0%

When Alcaraz wins the first two points returning, he goes on to break serve more than three out of four times. He is the only player on tour to sit above the 75 percentile threshold (77.8%) breaking serve from 0/30. The Tour average, at just 59.4 per cent, is far below Alcaraz’s lofty number.

Breaking From 30/30
1. C. Alcaraz = 38.5%
2. R. Nadal = 38.3%
3. D. Schwartzman = 36.9%

Alcaraz narrowly edged Nadal breaking from 30/30 at 38.5 per cent. He also sits more than 10 percentage points above the Tour average at 27.8 per cent.

Breaking From 15/30
1. R. Nadal = 58.7
2. C. Alcaraz = 57.8%
3. D. Schwartzman = 55.1%

The Tour average for breaking from 15/30 is 45.2 per cent. Alcaraz sits second in this category at a lofty 57.8 per cent, which is less than one percentage point behind Nadal. When Alcaraz gets his teeth into a return game, he is very efficient at closing it out.

Breaking From 15/40
1. R. Nadal = 80.6%
2. C. Alcaraz = 80.3%
3. M. Kecmanovic = 80.3%

This is another clear example of Alcaraz finishing what he started. When he reached 15/40, he broke 80.3 per cent of the time, which is almost exactly the same as Nadal (80.6%), and well above the Tour average of 72.4 per cent.

Breaking From Deuce
1. R. Nadal = 40.5%
2. C. Alcaraz = 40.3%
3. S. Korda = 38.1%

Alcaraz (40.3%) and Nadal (40.5%) are once again neck-and-neck in this return statistic, significantly outperforming the Tour average of breaking from deuce at 28.7 per cent. It turns out the server only enjoys a 60-40 advantage serving at Deuce against these two Spaniards.

At just 18 years of age, Alcaraz is just beginning to build his statistical resume on tour. The fact that he is so often mentioned in the same breath as Nadal when returning serve – and sometimes superior to him – speaks volumes to his prowess on the return side of the equation.

In 1989, Michael Chang won the first and only major tournament of his career, Roland Garros. Three years later, the pride of Hoboken, N.J., did something that may have been even more difficult: He won the coveted Sunshine Double, taking the titles in both Indian Wells and Miami.

“Coming into Indian Wells [in 1992], I was actually not playing that well,” Chang told ATP Uncovered. “So really, just kind of struggling through my matches and all of a sudden something just clicked. My timing clicked, my movement clicked.

“The tide completely shifted.”

Lacking the conventional weapons – a big serve and a forehand to match – Chang had two other vital attributes, brains and quickness. He leveraged those advantages, winning all six matches at the BNP Paribas Open. He dropped a single game in the semi-final over Francisco Clavet and beat Andrei Chesnokov in the final 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

“Miami’s a little different,” Chang said, “it’s a different flavour. I was really, really pumped to play Jim [Courier]. He’d reached No. 1.”

Indeed, after beating World No. 4 Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals, Chang drew Courier in the semi-finals at the Miami Open presented by Itau. That, too, was a straight-sets victory and only Alberto Mancini stood in his way.

“I had a good record against Alberto Mancini,” Chang said. “I felt like if I played good, solid tennis, I felt like I had a great chance to win that match.”
Chang needed only two sets to lift his second trophy in three weeks, following Courier (1991) as a Sunshine Double champion. Sampras (1994), Marcelo Rios (1998) and Andre Agassi (2001) would follow.

Eventually, Novak Djokovic (four doubles) and Roger Federer (three) would join them in that elite group.

“I think all the players realise you’ve got two huge, back-to-back tournaments,” Chang said. “I think for me to win both Indian Wells and Miami, I think it’s always been a special feat.

“I knew after it was done it was something I’d remember for a while.”