Wednesday will deliver all eight men’s fourth round singles matches. They feature the top three seeds: US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, 2021 tour leader in wins Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Olympic gold medalist Sascha Zverev.
Also on Wednesday, the first two women’s quarterfinals will be decided. Major champions Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko face surging Americans Jessica Pegula and Shelby Rogers.
Each day, this preview will analyze the two most intriguing matchups, while highlighting other notable matches on the schedule. Wednesday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Casper Ruud (6) vs. Diego Schwartzman (11) – 11:00am on Stadium 1
Ruud established himself on tour with his impressive clay results, winning four titles on the surface between May and July alone. But now he’s proving to be a threat on hard courts as well. Casper is on a six-match winning streak, coming off a title run two weeks ago in San Diego. However, he has a losing record this season against players ranked as high as Diego Schwartzman, who is currently 15th in the world. It’s been a rather ordinary year for Diego, who hasn’t reached a semifinal since early-March. Schwartzman claimed their first four meetings, which all took place prior to 2021. This season, both of their encounters have gone to Ruud in straight sets. And he’ll be the favorite to make it three in a row on Wednesday.
Daniil Medvedev (1) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (23) – Second on Stadium 1
Medvedev is now 38-5 this year on hard courts, and has won 18 of his last 19 matches. One of those victories came at the expense of Dimitrov, a 6-3, 6-3 win two months ago in Cincinnati. Medvedev also defeated him two years ago in the US Open semifinals. Overall the Russian leads their head-to-head 3-1, with Grigor’s only win coming four years ago on the grass of Queen’s Club. Dimitrov is only 20-15 in 2021, though he did reach the semifinals in San Diego. But he has been unable to bother Medvedev on this surface, losing all seven sets they’ve contested. I expect the US Open champion’s winning ways to continue.
Other Notable Matches on Wednesday:
Hubert Hurkacz (8) vs. Aslan Karatsev (19) – Two weeks ago in San Diego, Karatsev defeated Hurkacz in three sets.
Jessica Pegula (19) vs. Victoria Azarenka (27) – This is their third meeting this season, and they’ve split the previous two. In Melbourne, Pegula took out Azarenka in the opening round on the way to her Major quarterfinal debut.
Jannik Sinner (10) vs. Taylor Fritz (31) – Fritz upset another Italian, Matteo Berrettini, on Tuesday. Sinner received a walkover in the last round from another American, John Isner.
Jelena Ostapenko (24) vs. Shelby Rogers – Rogers outlasted teenage phenom Leylah Fernandez on Tuesday in a third set tiebreak, after prevailing in the same scenario at the US Open against World No.1 Ash Barty. Ostapenko has claimed both of their previous encounters, though both were on clay.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) vs. Alex de Minaur (22) – Tsitsipas has accumulated 53 wins on the year, and he’s 5-0 against de MInaur, who arrived at Indian Wells having lost seven of his last eight matches.
Sascha Zverev (3) vs. Gael Monfils (14) – Monfils is actually 3-0 against Zverev, though they haven’t played since 2016. Zverev has won 23 of his last 25 hard court matches.
Wednesday’s full Order of Play is here.
