Australian No 1 Alex de Minaur has been bundled out of the BNP Paribas Open in the round of 16 after a shock defeat to Francisco Cerundolo at Indian Wells. The Argentinian stunned an out-of-sorts De Minaur to reach the quarter-finals with a 7-5 6-3 victory on Wednesday.
De Minaur had his opportunities against the No 25 seed but could only capitalise on three of 14 break points, while Cerundolo sealed all but one of his seven to win in straight sets. The world No 10 uncharacteristically found it just as hard to find his range from the baseline with 39 unforced errors and only nine winners across the one-hour and 50-minute match.
Cerundolo saved a set point on serve at 5-5 in the first then made the most of De Minaurâs error-filled performance to turn the tables on the 26-year-old. De Minaur knocked Cerundolo out of the Australian Open in four sets and came into this clash in ominous form as he marched into the last 16 without dropping a set but it is the Argentinian who will now advance to a fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.
âI am super happy, I knew it was going to be a battle today,â Cerundolo said. âAlex is an amazing player, a fighter. He is having some great years, a top-10 player and we had a battle in Australia and it went his side but today I had another match, another opportunity and I think I did really well. I am super happy to beat a high-quality player and be in the quarter-finals in Indian Wells.â
The in-form Cerundolo will face two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight a month after reaching an ATP final in Buenos Aires.
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Elsewhere, Jack Draper booked his place in the quarter-finals with a straight-sets victory over third seed Taylor Fritz. Draper won seven successive games from late in the first set on the way to a 7-5 6-4 triumph and will next face Ben Shelton after the American 11th seed beat Brandon Nakashima 7-6 6-1.
