This week marks the business end of the BNP Paribas Open, as today’s stars bid for ATP Masters 1000 glory in the California desert. But while the party continues in Indian Wells, the action is just getting started in the nearby metropolis of Phoenix.

The inaugural Arizona Tennis Classic gets underway on Monday, with a star-studded lineup descending on the Phoenix Country Club. As players transition from Indian Wells to Miami, many have decided to hit the hard courts of the ATP Challenger Tour event in search of more matches and confidence.

View Draw

Led by World No. 21 David Goffin, the stacked draw features a total of five Top 50 players and 17 in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. For the second time in three weeks, a Top 30 player has entered a Challenger tournament, as Goffin looks to follow in Indian Wells champ Kyle Edmund’s footsteps and take home a title.

The Belgian is joined by World No. 37 Jeremy Chardy, No. 42 John Millman, No. 43 Mikhail Kukushkin and No. 49 Matthew Ebden, with recent Delray Beach finalist Daniel Evans also in the field. The American contingent is led by Harrison, Ernesto Escobedo, Bradley Klahn and Mitchell Krueger. 

And the #NextGenATP crew is headed by 18-year-old Nicola Kuhn, 19-year-old Alexei Popyrin and 20-year-olds Casper Ruud and Mikael Ymer. Last year’s junior Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Chun-hsin Tseng was awarded a main draw wild card.

Ruud recently made his Top 100 debut after reaching the semi-finals at the ATP Tour stop in Sao Paulo. And Popyrin is coming off a first ATP Masters 1000 victory in Indian Wells, surging to the second round as a qualifier. The Norwegian awaits the winner of Elias Ymer/Lukas Rosol, while the Aussie opens against Egor Gerasimov of Belarus.

Backhand battle ahead of the @aztennisclassic @ryanharrison92 & @johnhmillman putting in the work in Phoenix pic.twitter.com/y8wf0vdW6N

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) March 11, 2019

Notable first-round encounters include an all-Taiwanese affair between Tseng and Jason Jung, as well as Escobedo vs. Evans, and Harrison battling former Next Gen ATP Finals contestant Gianluigi Quinzi. 

The Phoenix area has previously hosted a long-running ATP Tour event in nearby Scottsdale (from 1986-2005), which featured Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and John McEnroe among its champions. Main draw action begins on Monday, with seeded players kicking off their campaigns on Tuesday. 

Five-time former champion Novak Djokovic looks to extend his record of 50 match wins at the BNP Paribas Open (50-8 overall) on Tuesday when he challenges German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Stadium 1 in their third-round match. The World No 1, who has won eight of their nine FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings — including three in Indian Wells (2008, 2010 and 2016) — will be wary of Kohlschreiber, who knocked out Nick Kyrgios, the recent Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC titlist (d. A. Zverev), in the second round. Djokovic is 11-1 on the year, including a record seventh Australian Open crown (d. Nadal) in January.

Third seed Alexander Zverev, a winner of three ATP Masters 1000 trophies, aims to improve his 4-0 record against fellow German Jan-Lennard Struff in the second match on Stadium 1. Milos Raonic, the 2016 finalist and No. 13 seed, begins play on the main show court against 25-year-old wild card Marcos Giron, a winner over Jeremy Chardy and Alex de Minaur in the opening two rounds.

View Indian Wells Draws

Over on Stadium 2, 18-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, fresh off his first Top 10 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas and at a career-high No. 58 in the ATP Rankings, will try to reach the fourth round at an ATP Masters 1000 tournament for the first time when he takes on Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka. Meanwhile, France’s Gael Monfils, the No. 18 seed and 2016 quarter-finalist, who had got off to a fine start in 2019 with a 13-3 record — including the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title — takes a 2-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead into his clash against Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain.

Elsewhere, in the final match on Stadium 3, seventh-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem attempts to record his eighth straight win in his 11th meeting against No. 27 seed Gilles Simon of France.

STATS OF THE DAY

• Alexander Zverev has reached the quarter-finals at 11 ATP Masters 1000 events in his career, going on to win three ATP Masters 1000 titles (2017 Rome, Montreal and 2018 Madrid) but has yet to reach the final eight in Indian Wells. View Zverev’s ATP Masters 1000 Record

• Gael Monfils’s title at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament last month was only his second singles title at ATP 500 level of his eight singles titles in total. Monfils has advanced to three ATP Masters 1000 finals at the 2009 and 2010 Rolex Paris Masters and at the 2016 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

• Marcos Giron, who received a wild card into the qualifying field, has now won back-to-back matches in an ATP Tour main draw for the first time in his career. The World No. 217 is also the lowest-ranked player to reach the Indian Wells third round since No. 239 Ivo Karlovic in 2011. Read Feature 

• The 40-year-old Karlovic became the oldest match winner at an ATP Masters 1000 event in series history (since 1990) when he won his first-round match over Matthew Ebden on Thursday. He quickly broke his own record, two days later, with an upset of his countryman, No. 11 seed Borna Coric, in the second round. Read Feature 

• Philipp Kohlschreiber reached his fifth and most recent ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at Indian Wells last year (his first came at Madrid in 2007). He has yet to reach an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final (0-5 in QF matches).

• In his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 main draw appearance, Prajnesh Gunneswaran has reached the third round as a qualifier. It is the second year in a row that an Indian qualifier has made the third round of the BNP Paribas Open – Yuki Bhambri pulled off the same feat in 2018. Read Feature

• Laslo Djere and Felix Auger-Aliassime both contested their first ATP Tour singles final at the Rio Open presented by Claro last month, with Djere capturing the title. Both now find themselves into the third round at Indian Wells, while holding career-high ATP Rankings: Djere at No. 32 and Auger-Aliassime at No. 58.

VIEW SCHEDULE – MONDAY, 11 MARCH 2019

STADIUM 1 start 11:00 am
ATP – [Q] M. Giron (USA) vs [13] M. Raonic (CAN)
ATP – [3] A. Zverev (GER) vs J. Struff (GER)
WTA – V. Williams (USA) vs [Q] C. Mchale (USA)

Not Before 6:00 pm
WTA – [1] N. Osaka (JPN) vs [25] D. Collins (USA)

Not Before 8:00 pm
ATP – [1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs P. Kohlschreiber (GER)

STADIUM 2 start 11:00 am
WTA – [Q] N. Vikhlyantseva (RUS) vs [8] A. Kerber (GER)

Not Before 12:30 pm
WTA – [9] A. Sabalenka (BLR) vs [24] L. Tsurenko (UKR)
ATP – [18] G. Monfils (FRA) vs A. Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
ATP – [WC] F. Auger-Aliassime (CAN) vs Y. Nishioka (JPN)

Not Before 6:00 pm
ATP – D. Inglot (GBR) / F. Skugor (CRO) vs [4] B. Bryan (USA) / M. Bryan (USA)

STADIUM 3 start 11:00 am
WTA – [11] A. Sevastova (LAT) vs [21] A. Kontaveit (EST)
WTA – [Q] Y. Bonaventure (BEL) vs [5] Ka. Pliskova (CZE)
WTA – M. Barthel (GER) vs [15] J. Goerges (GER)
ATP – [27] G. Simon (FRA) vs [7] D. Thiem (AUT)

STADIUM 4 start 11:00 am
ATP – [8] H. Kontinen (FIN) / J. Peers (AUS) vs J. Rojer (NED) / H. Tecau (ROU)
ATP – I. Karlovic (CRO) vs [Q] P. Gunneswaran (IND)
ATP – [30] [WC] L. Djere (SRB) vs [LL] M. Kecmanovic (SRB)
WTA – [23] B. Bencic (SUI) vs E. Alexandrova (RUS)

STADIUM 6 start 11:00 am
WTA – [1] B. Krejcikova (CZE) / K. Siniakova (CZE) vs A. Rosolska (POL) / Z. Yang (CHN)
ATP – [1] P. Herbert (FRA) / N. Mahut (FRA) vs N. Mektic (CRO) / H. Zeballos (ARG)
WTA – J. Brady (USA) / A. Riske (USA) vs K. Bertens (NED) / D. Vekic (CRO)
ATP – [WC] L. Pouille (FRA) / S. Wawrinka (SUI) vs [5] J. Cabal (COL) / R. Farah (COL)

Watch Indian Wells Sunday Highlights

Last week, the stars of the ATP Challenger Tour descended on Indian Wells for the Oracle Challenger Series finale. It was another picture perfect week in the California desert, with players and fans treated to world-class tennis in one of the most scenic settings on tour.

But the Challenger competitors weren’t the only ones testing their talents at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. During the tournament, six high school kids from local communities put the players to the test, holding press conferences throughout the day on quarter-final Friday. Noah Rubin, semi-finalist Lloyd Harris and doubles finalists JC Aragone and Marcos Giron were quizzed by the kids in individual interviews.

It was a unique experience for not only the four aspiring journalists, who were given the opportunity to ask questions in the main interview room, but for the players as well. For Rubin, Harris, Aragone and Giron, sitting on the podium at an ATP Masters 1000 venue does not come often, and the quartet relished the opportunity.

“It was fun to sit around some kids who are interested in journalism and want to ask me questions,” Rubin told ATPChallengerTour.com. “Their questions were even better than some seasoned members of the media. It was fun to be around them. 

“I’ve done it before, but never questions of interest like that. They prepared them in advance and I tried to give pretty good answers and have a conversation. It was a good time. They were interested in my mentality off the court, which is different. Everyone asks the usual tennis questions but they were going a little deeper than that. It’s nice to see from their generation.”

The students visited the tournament as part of ‘High School Nation’, an organisation that supports the arts and athletic programs in underserved public schools. The HSN Journalism program provides the opportunity to introduce aspiring journalists and broadcasters to professional athletes across the country. 

Four of the students sought to explore their passion in journalism, asking the hard-hitting questions, while two others assisted with video production of the press conference.

Novak Djokovic and Fabio Fognini are competing alongside one another for the first time at the BNP Paribas Open, but it’s been tough to tell. The Serbian-Italian duo beat Indian Rohan Bopanna and #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 1-6, 10-8 on Sunday evening in front of an energetic Stadium 2 crowd to reach the third round in Indian Wells.

Bopanna and Shapovalov won 18 points more than Djokovic and Fognini, yet they were unable to get across the finish line. Fognini missed a sitting forehand volley from right on top of the net on his team’s first match point at 9-7 in the Match Tie-break. But Shapovalov hit a forehand in the net on the next point to end the match after 61 minutes.

“It’s great. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did,” Djokovic said on court after the match. “It was a lot of fun. Fabio is one of the funniest guys on the [ATP] Tour. I smile a lot on the court [with him]. [In the] second set [there was] not much smiling, actually. But generally, it was a great match.”

While Fognini lost earlier Sunday in singles against Moldovan Radu Albot, he has enjoyed success on the doubles court in the past. The Italian has captured five tour-level doubles titles, including his triumph with compatriot Simone Bolelli at the 2015 Australian Open. The on-court reporter reminded the winning duo of that after the match.

“Remember that Nole, you understand?” Fognini joked.

Djokovic and Fognini will next face two-time Nitto ATP Finals champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers or veteran pair Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.

Later in the day, sixth seeds and 2017 finalists Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo got the better of wild cards Taylor Fritz and Nick Kyrgios in an entertaining 6-4, 1-6, 10-8 victory over 73 minutes. They will next challenge two-time former champions and fourth seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan or Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor in the quarter-finals.

Seventh seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus ousted Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 7-6(4) in one hour and 29 minutes. Klaasen and Venus saved five of the seven break points they faced to advance to the third round.

In first-round action, third seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic beat Italians Marco Cecchinato and Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-0. Wild cards Mackenzie McDonald and Reilly Opelka dismissed Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Gael Monfils 7-6(5), 6-3.

Marcos Giron saw his third-round run at the BNP Paribas Open coming, only four years earlier. In 2014, he won the NCAA men’s singles championship. A few months later, he pushed John Isner at the US Open. Giron was the Next Big Thing in American tennis.

But whose early career – in any profession – goes as planned? Giron, away from the college atmosphere – coaches, teammates, crowds – and injured – he’d need two hip surgeries – questioned everything. “The reality is it’s tough,” he told ATPTour.com.

A year ago, he was playing in California in March, but at a Futures event in Calabasas, where Giron reached the final and, for prize money, took home $2,120. At other Futures events, he’d look around, see empty aluminum bleachers void of a support team or coaches, and think, “This is about as far from Indian Wells or the US Open as it can be.”

This week, however, he’s one of the stories of Indian Wells. Giron had one tour-level win before BNP Paribas Open. But he qualified, beat No. 33 Jeremy Chardy and Sydney International titlist Alex de Minaur to make the third round, where he faces 2016 finalist Milos Raonic on Monday.

Giron, ranked No. 217, is the lowest-ranked player to make the Round of 32 here since No. 239 Ivo Karlovic in 2011. For prize money, he’s guaranteed $48,775.

“I didn’t expect to be here in the third round,” Giron said, “but I also have been working hard, and I’ve been playing well so I’m happy to see the hard work that I’ve been putting in, not just in the off-season but throughout the years, paying off.”

In November 2015, Giron felt he was close to this type of run. He beat Aussie John Millman to make the quarter-finals of an ATP Challenger Tour event in Canberra.

But the hip pain that had bothered him on and off since his NCAA title kept flaring up every few matches, and he underwent two surgeries in December 2015 – right hip – and February 2016 – left hip – to fix two hip labral tears. The labrum keeps the ball stable within the hip socket, and doctors shaved down his hip bones that were wearing down cartilage.

“Players are too good for you not to be at your best,” Giron said.

Recovery took almost a year. Six months after his first operation, he could hit for 15 minutes twice a week, and then 30 minutes twice a week and so on.

During his time off, he stayed in tennis, volunteering as an assistant coach at his alma mater, UCLA, and taking a class towards his economics degree – he turned professional a year before graduation.

Ranked No. 632, Giron made his return at a Futures event in Irvine, California, where he made the quarter-finals and, in prize money, earned $292. “There were definitely some tough moments, but I just kept in mind that I loved to play tennis. I loved to compete,” he said.

By June 2017, he’d won three more Futures titles, but the turning point of his comeback came on the ATP Tour last August. Giron earned his first tour-level win at the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemax in Los Cabos and served for the first set before losing 7-5, 6-3 to eventual finalist Juan Martin del Potro.

Read More: Del Potro Tested By World No. 446 In Los Cabos

“To be on the same court and realise, I can really play with these guys, I think that was an amazing moment and brought me back to believing I can compete,” Giron said.

In December, his comeback gained more momentum after he partnered, through the USTA, with coach Peter Lucassen, former coach of Americans Steve Johnson and Ryan Harrison.

Giron also spent time working with USTA staff at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, and that month, he won his first ATP Challenger Tour title at the Orlando Open.

He and Lucassen have talked through how to get out of ruts – in matches or during off stretches during the season. “It’s planning the night before, figuring out what is your Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. If this works, keep going, if it doesn’t work… and also going to bed thinking about it and keeping it in mind,” said Giron, who also has worked with coach Christian Groh for years.

He has relied on that training this week in Indian Wells. De Minaur won the first set 6-1 in 22 minutes against Giron. But he forgot about the false start and let loose in the second, winning 12 of the final 18 games.

Last year, Lucassen told ATPTour.com, “He probably could have talked himself out of the match.”

Giron, like many tennis players, would find reasons why he was doomed – the opponent, the conditions, the balls. “Sometimes he could be a commentator on the court. He’s way more focused. He’s less distracted on the court,” said Lucassen, who emphasised the work Groh and the USTA staff have done with Giron.

It’s been a paradigm shift for Giron, Lucassen said: “Being ready for your adjustments that you need to make instead of complaining, ‘Oh, it’s not there that day.’ But there’s always opportunities to find that Plan B, or to get through a match.”

Giron thinks his new mental outlook that’s helped him in Indian Wells will carry him all season. Sure, his run has come years later than he thought, but he’s earned this spotlight.

“Many times last year I would let things carry over, maybe I’d lose one week and I’d be in a similar situation the next week, and I’d let it affect me rather than learning from it,” Giron said. “I’m trying to be more resilient, to be honest, just keep fighting every single point. Whether I’m down a set or a break or up, just keep fighting.”