World No. 2 Jannik Sinner took another step in his quest for his first title at Indian Wells, dominating Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-2 in 73 minutes on Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open.
The Italian advanced to the California event’s fourth round for the fifth time in as many appearances. He made the semifinals in 2023 and 2024 but lost to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, the current No. 1.
Sinner, the second seed, is 2-1 head-to-head against Shapovalov, ranked No. 39 in the world.
“Denis is a high quality-player, as we know,” Sinner said. “He’s an in-form player, so I’m very happy with my performance. I tried to stay solid at the baseline, but also a bit more aggressive in the second set, which helped me. It was a tough start for me, but I’m happy with how I reacted.”
Sinner converted 4 of 8 on break-point opportunities, to 1 of 1 for Shapovalov, who had more unforced errors (25-11) and double faults (7-2). Sinner had the edge in aces (6-2) and won 85% of his first serves (28 of 33), to 62% (21 of 34) for his opponent.
While Sinner cruised on Sunday, World No. 8 Ben Shelton was upset by fellow American and left-hander Learner Tien 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3 in 2 hours, nine minutes in their Round-of-32 match.
The 25th-seeded Tien, making the fourth round at Indian Wells for the first time, is now 2-0 at this ATP Tour level against Shelton and acknowledged that his opponent has been battling through an illness.
“I just want to say, Ben came out not feeling 100%,” Tien said. “I don’t think he’s been feeling great all week, but he’s an amazing competitor and he came out and gave it his all. So I just want to say, huge props to him.”
Tien, 20, is from Irvine, Calif., and attended matches at this event over several years as a child growing up in Southern California. He called it “really a full-circle moment.”
He actually out-aced the hard-serving Shelton, 15-8. That power came with more double faults (10-3), but Tien also had more winners (40-34) as neither player was able to break serve more than once during the match.
Another upset came from unseeded Brazilian Joao Fonseca, age 19, eliminated American Tommy Paul, the 23rd seed, 6-2, 6-3. Czech Jakub Mensik, the 12th seed, fell to 18th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the fourth seed, avoided an upset by outlasting 28th-seeded Brandon Nakashima of the United States 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-4.
No. 9 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime won an All-Canadian battle with Gabriel Diallo 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3. American Frances Tiafoe, seeded 21st, got the better of Italian Flavio Cobolli, the 15th seed, 6-1, 6-2.
Frenchman Arthur Fils, seeded 30th, dispatched Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
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