After undergoing two career-threatening hip surgeries, Andy Murray had a lot of time to reflect on how much more tennis he’ll be able to play at the elite level. He’s 34 years old now and a father of four.

“Obviously, as you start to get close to the end of your career you look at certain milestones and things you could potentially achieve,” Murray told ATP Media recently. “Obviously the last few years have been tricky for me.”

And so, Murray has turned to the partnership that helped create his best on-court moments; he’s bringing back eight-time Grand Slam singles champion Ivan Lendl for a third tour of duty as coach.

“I’ve had some good results over the last couple of years, but the consistency of them has been poor,” Murray said. “I think that’s because the level of the tennis that I’ve been playing is not that high. I trust a lot of what Ivan says. We obviously had excellent results together in the past.”

In their first year together, Murray won his first major, the 2012 US Open. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that Murray became only the second player in the Open era to win his first Grand Slam title after going 0-4 in previous finals. Lendl, of course, was the first.

Murray followed that up with a victory at Wimbledon in 2013 to become the first British man to win the singles title there since Fred Perry in 1936. The two later split, but rejoined forces in 2016, another banner year for Murray. He won his second Wimbledon title, rose to No. 1 in the world, took home a second Olympic gold medal and won the Nitto ATP Finals with a victory over Novak Djokovic in the final.

His 700th match win already secured, Murray is ranked No. 88, but by bringing Lendl back clearly has higher aspirations. After his BNP Paribas Open defeat to Alexander Bublik, Murray now heads to the Miami Open presented by Itau, a tournament he has won twice. Murray plans to spend a few weeks in Orlando, working with Lendl, who is based in nearby Vero Beach. After a few tournaments in Europe, there is another scheduled training block in Florida, followed by Wimbledon. Murray said he isn’t sure how long this third partnership will last.

“But, certainly, in the short term, we’ll spend a lot of time together,” he said. “It means a lot to me that he’s still willing to help me and believes that I can achieve great results. And I trust him in that, too.

“I still feel like it’s possible, but I think that if he didn’t believe that I don’t think that he’d work with me and he’d tell me. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to it and I hope there are better results ahead.”

In the wake of Sunday’s second-round victory over Kamil Majchrzak at the BNP Paribas Open, Taylor Fritz did not sound like a man who dropped all of two games in a scant 57 minutes.

“First match, a little bit of nerves, obviously, so it was good to kind of get through it safely,” the 24-year-old American told reporters afterward. “Some things I would like to work on tomorrow, do a bit better, but all in all like in a pretty good place with my game after that match.”

A year ago, regardless of the tournament, Fritz was just looking to win a match or two. Now, seeded No. 20 at Indian Wells and armed with the same ranking number among ATP Tour players, Fritz expects to go deep into draws. This confidence comes directly from the results he’s produced over the past six months, going back to – by a quirk of scheduling – the 2021 version of Indian Wells.

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Fritz, it seems, was born to succeed in the California desert. He was born and raised in nearby Rancho Santa Fe and spent many pleasant days wandering among the matches in this lovely tennis garden. Last fall, he reached the semi-finals of his first ATP Masters 1000, the first of his career. To do it, he had to beat two Top-10 players, Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev, saving two match points against the German.

Two weeks later, Fritz was a finalist in St. Petersburg and a quarter-finalist at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris, falling there 4-6, 3-6 to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. He reached the round of 16 at this year’s Australian Open, a career best, extending Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets in a match that went nearly three hours and a half.

“For sure, I think just my level as a player has gone up,” Fritz said. “I think I’ve gone up several levels. I think I’m a way better player than I was when I was here last year, and I think I’ve improved a lot.

“So, yeah, I expect a lot more of myself. My goal is to move into the Top 10. So I definitely have a lot higher expectations.”

And the world will be watching. Fritz is one of the ATP players the Netflix crew has been shadowing in its upcoming tennis docuseries. One of his goals, he said, is to make tennis a “cooler” sport, one that will appear more often on ESPN’s iconic SportsCenter.

Fritz, who now faces Jaume Munar in the third round after the qualifier shocked No. 16 seed Pablo Carreno Busta, just needs to produce more results like the one over Majchrzak.

“Sounds very nit-picky because obviously the match, it was 6-1, 6-1 today, but I think there were some things I could have done a bit better,” he said. “So, tighten up some things tomorrow in practice but, yeah, confidence-wise, it’s great to start out with a match like this.”

Fritz finished the 2021 season as the No. 1-ranked American man. Two other former No. 1 Americans also won matches Sunday. No. 23 John Isner evened his career head-to-head with Sam Querrey at five-all with a 7-6(6), 7-6(3) second-round victory. Steve Johnson upset No. 22 seed Aslan Karatsev 7-6(5), 6-4.

Something in the Indian Wells air seems to inspire Tommy Paul.

The American produced a top-class performance to defeat World No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2) in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, upping his level in the deciding-set tie-break to complete the biggest win of his career.

“I like playing here,” said Paul after the match. “I like the conditions. The fans really support [the American players] here, and that’s why we all love it. It feels like a real home tournament.”

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Paul reached the fourth round in California in 2021, beating then-World No. 5 Andrey Rublev on the way to his best run at an ATP Masters 1000 event, and he continues to look comfortable on the big stage at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

It’s also not the first time Paul has impressed against the top players on Tour. It was his fourth win over a Top 10 opponent, a tally that includes a straight-sets win in his only previous meeting with Zverev in Acapulco in 2020. The American hopes to reproduce such victories more regularly as he looks to push further up the ATP Rankings.

“I would hope that I can be in the Top 10,” said Paul. “That’s what it takes, you’ve got to beat more Top 10 players and I played well today, so I’m happy.”

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The 2021 Stockholm champion came racing out the blocks on Stadium 1, surging to the first set after breaking twice as his opponent struggled to settle.

The match looked to be going only one way as Zverev found himself 15/40 down in the fifth game of the second set, but the German’s biggest weapon inspired a mid-match comeback. He won 24 consecutive points on serve as he fended off those break points, took the second set and surged to a 4-2 lead in the decider.

That weapon soon became Zverev’s downfall, however. Having established a 4-2 lead in the third set, a pair of double faults gifted his opponent the break back. An absorbing encounter fittingly ended with a deciding tie-break, but it was Paul who elevated his game to roar to a 6/1 lead, sealing victory with his second match point to the delight of a raucous home crowd.

According to Infosys ATP Stats, Paul’s efficiency coming forward was key to his win. The American won 71 per cent (29/41) of points at the net, completing the win in two hours, 17 minutes.

“I never felt out of the match,” said Paul. “My gameplan in the tie-break was to play more aggressive than I did the whole match, and see if he comes up with the goods. When I come to the net, see if he comes up with big passing shots, and if he did that, then too good. That was my process.”

Paul’s third-round opponent will be Alex de Minaur, after the 29th seed came out on top in an all-Australian battle with John Millman.

De Minaur reached the fourth round in Indian Wells for the first time in 2021, and the 23-year-old gave himself a chance of matching that run with a solid display against his countryman. He broke Millman three times on his way to a 7-6(4), 6-3 win.

Matteo Berrettini has already created a slew of Italian firsts in tennis.

Back in January, when he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, he became the first player from Italy ever to make the quarter-finals in each of the four majors. A year ago, he was also the first Italian man to appear in the Wimbledon final.

One code Berrettini has been unable to crack? The BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, where he has yet to advance past the third round. Believe it or not, before Sunday he had managed only a single victory (over Alejandro Tabilo) in three previous appearances here. Based on his 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 second-round win over committed qualifier Holger Rune, this might be the year he checks that box.

And when it was over, after a pair of unreturnable serves finally delivered him, Berrettini tapped his racquet appreciatively and scanned the four sides of the arena. And then he let out a deep sigh.

“It was definitely a tough match – I expected it,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview. “He’s improving every time I see him. He’s going to have a bright future.

“Today I think I was able to manage the strokes. I’m really happy, because I wasn’t feeling that comfortable in the court.”

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On Tuesday, the No. 6-ranked Berrettini will face South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 winner over Facundo Bagnis.

The #NextGenATP Rune, still only 18, collected his first ATP Masters 1000 main draw victory in the first round over Ugo Humbert. The Dane, uncommonly agile and athletic even among professionals, is ranked a career-high No. 86 and is a former World No. 1 junior. A year ago, as a 17-year-old qualifier in Santiago, he became the first ATP Tour player born in 2003 to reach a quarter-final. He even took a second-set tie-break from World No. 1 Novak Djokovic after qualifying at last year’s US Open, his first major.

In the third set, Berrettini’s formidable forehand and serve began to open up some distance. With Rune serving at 1-all, he double-faulted to give Berrettini a break point. The Italian ripped a low, tight forehand and a charging Rune sent a backhand volley into the net. Perhaps sensing that lost moment as pivotal, Rune whacked the top of the net with his racquet on the way to his changeover chair.

That break held up the rest of the way in a match that saw Berrettini hit 27 winners – 14 of them aces and 12 from the forehand side.

“I like the courts, the atmosphere, it’s very nice,” said Berrettini when asked about his less-than-stellar record at Indian Wells. “For one reason or another, I got here half-injured or something always happened.

“I’m pretty old for tennis [25], but I didn’t play this tournament too many times. It takes time and sometimes a little bit of luck. Hopefully, this is going to be the good one.”