Alex de Minaur has fallen to a straight units defeat to Argentine twenty fifth seed Francisco Cerúndolo 7-5, 6-3 at Indian Wells.
The world quantity 10, ranked ninth in California, has nonetheless by no means made it to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, usually described because the fifth main.
De Minaur beat the Argentine in 4 units on the Australian Open earlier this yr, however an error-strewn efficiency noticed him fall in a single hour and 50 minutes.
The 26-year-old dedicated 39 unforced errors in an uncharacteristic show.
“I’m tremendous completely satisfied. I knew it was going to be a battle at present,” Cerúndolo mentioned,
“Alex is an incredible participant, a fighter. He’s having some nice years, a Prime 10 participant and we had a battle in Australia and it went his aspect however at present I had one other match, one other alternative and I believe I did very well.
“I’m tremendous completely satisfied to beat a high-quality participant and be within the quarter-finals in Indian Wells.”
Elsewhere, Ben Shelton grew to become the youngest American man since Andy Roddick in 2004 to succeed in the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, beating Brandon Nakashima in straight units.
The 22-year-old Shelton cruised within the second set of a 7-6 (6), 6-1 victory. After a 61-minute opening set, he took a 5-0 lead in simply 20 minutes within the deciding set.
The Eleventh-seeded Shelton hasn’t dropped a set in 5 profession matches towards Nakashima, a 23-year-old American.
Belinda Bencic beat Coco Gauff in three units. (Getty Pictures: Robert Prange)
On the ladies’s aspect, quantity three seed Coco Gauff was upset within the spherical of 16 by unseeded Belinda Bencic. The 28-year-old wild card from Switzerland rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Bencic returned the favour from the Australian Open in January, when Gauff received after dropping the primary set.
The defeat got here the day earlier than Gauff’s twenty first birthday because the 2023 US Open champion was damaged at 4-4 within the closing set after going up 40-0.
Gauff struggled together with her serve all through the match and had eight double-faults towards Bencic, with simply 4 aces.
Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the quantity 5 seed, rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory over Nineteenth-seeded Donna Vekić.
The 30-year-old American prolonged her profitable streak to fifteen matches after trailing 5-3 and being two factors from defeat within the second set.
Prime-seeded Aryna Sabalenka cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Sonay Kartal, who was dealing with an opponent ranked within the prime 10 for the primary time.
Jack Draper of Britain beat third-seeded American Taylor Fritz — a previous champion at Indian Wells — 7-5, 6-4.
AP/ABC
