Young Australian Alex De Minaur announced his arrival as a professional with a series of strong performances during the Australasian swing. Now the Aussie is looking to qualify for his first Masters 1000 event. After an impressive win against the seeded Go Soeda, De Minaur will have to defeat Radu Albot if he is to make the main draw in Indian Wells for the first time.
Recent Memphis finalist Nikoloz Basilashvili, the top seed in qualifying, is also still in with a chance of making the main draw in Indian Wells. The Georgian won his first round match against Matthew Ebden in straight sets. Basilashvili faces young Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik, the twenty-third seed, who had beaten Ernests Gulbis in his first round meeting.
The first round of qualifying had seen a number of seeds fall to lower-ranked opposition. Yesterday, second seed Denis Istomin was forced to retire against Dennis Novikov when trailing by a set and a break. The draw also saw sixth seed Jared Donaldson shocked by his American compatriot Rajeev Ram. American eighth seed Ernesto Escobedo was also ousted by the in-form Peter Gojowczyk. Eleventh seed Sergiy Stakhovsky’s poor form this season continued in his loss to Federico Gaio, and young Russian twenty-second seed Andrey Rublev was dispatched by Australia’s Andrew Whittington.
Full Qualifying Round draw (Picks in bold):
(1) Nikoloz Basilashvili vs (23) Alexander Bublik
Dennis Novikov vs (16) Henri Laaksonen
(3) Yoshihito Nishioka vs Elias Ymer
(4) Radu Albot vs Alex De Minaur
(5) Mikhail Kukushkin vs (20) Darian King
Rajeev Ram vs (18) Vasek Pospisil
(7) Santiago Giraldo vs (13) Norbert Gombos
Peter Gojowcyzk vs Marco Trungelliti
(9) Dusan Lajovic vs (21) Tobias Kamke
(10) Illya Marchenko vs (14) Julien Benneteau
Federico Gaio vs Andrew Whittington
(12) Marius Copil vs (19) Denis Kudla
In other Indian Wells news, a former grand slam semi-finalist misses out on the main draw due to injury.
https://www.ubitennis.net/blog/2017/03/08/appendicitis-forces-richard-gasquet-american-masters-swing/
