After making his first Grand Slam semi-final at the start of the year at the Australian Open, Hyeon Chung is now through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open. The 21-year-old South Korean raced past Pablo Cuevas, 6-1, 6-3, on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

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Chung’s breakthrough came with victory at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in November (d. Rublev) and since then he has gone from strength to strength, racking up a 15-5 record already in 2018. Last year, the right-hander did not claim his 15^th tour-level win until the Masters 1000 in Montreal in August.

Chung will next look to challenge either World No. 1 Roger Federer or Jeremy Chardy, who play later in Indian Wells. 

Chung has his sights set on the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings, having started the season at No. 58. Currently ranked No. 26, the Suwon native took down Cuevas in 73 minutes. After Chung had dominated to open up a 6-1, 5-0 lead, the wily Uruguayan veteran dug his heels in to make the South Korean work for his victory. Cuevas fended off seven match points to break back in the sixth game and then broke Chung again to bring the score back to 5-3, but the right-hander closed out victory at the third time of asking. 

Borna Coric joined Chung in the last eight as he battled past Next Gen American Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes.

Coric had lost only nine games in surging through to the R16 and looked set for another dominant display as he raced to secure the first set 6-2 against Fritz. But the 20-year-old American stood his ground in the second set. He failed to serve out the set when he had the opportunity at 5-4, but then held his nerve to save match point at 5/6 in the tie-break before levelling up on Stadium 1 with a roar.

Fritz carried his momentum into the decider with a break in the first game, but Coric, now working with Riccardo Piatti and Kristijan Schneider, clawed his way back to level in the fourth game. He then saved a crucial break point in the ninth game before breaking Fritz to clinch the match in the following game, converting his fourth match point overall.

Coric will look to reach his first Masters 1000 semi-final when he faces either Pablo Carreno Busta or Kevin Anderson in Indian Wells.

“That was just a really tough one,” said Fritz. “It obviously sucks to compete so hard and come back the way I did in the second-set tie-break and saved the match points just to double fault it away.

“It sucks, and it’s probably the biggest match I have played in my career as far as making a quarterfinals of a Masters, points, and all that. It’s really tough to lose that match.

“It stings a lot, but you do have to take away positives,” added Fritz. “I made the round of 16 for the first time, and I think I’m playing very good tennis.

“This year for me has been very consistent. I have had a lot of strong results. And I’m off to a really good start for the year, and I think I can build on this and make this more of a regular thing.”

Pablo Cuevas and Horacio Zeballos clinched a thrilling Match Tie-break second-round victory over fifth seeds and 2016 champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut on Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open. Cuevas and Zeballos saved one match point at 9/10 in the tense tie-break for a 7-6(5), 3-6, 13/11 win in one hour and 38 minutes. The duo will now prepare for a quarter-final against big servers Gilles Muller and Sam Querrey.

Two-time former champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan continued their bid for a third BNP Paribas Open crown by beating Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and David Marrero 6-2, 6-3 in 57 minutes. The American twins, now 39-16 lifetime in Indian Wells where they picked up titles in 2013 (d. Huey/Janowicz) and 2014 (d. Peya/Soares), won four of the first five games in the first set and then recovered from a 0-2 deficit in the second set. The seventh seeds will next challenge Marcus Daniell and Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals.

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Borna Coric deems it “maybe the best tennis of my life”, breezing past the in-form Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. Now, the gifted 21-year-old Croatian has the chance to back it up against #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz on a blockbuster, action-packed Wednesday, with all fourth-round clashes due to take place.

A resurgent Coric, back up to No. 49 in the ATP Rankings, has dropped fewer games than any player in the top half of the draw in the desert. Fritz, by contrast, has had to rally his home crowd to get him across the line against #NextGenATP stablemates, Reilly Opelka and Andrey Rublev, before his gripping third-set tie-break triumph over experienced Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

Coric, a 2017 #NextGenATP Finals qualifier, leads the FedEx ATP Head2Head series over his 20-year-old opponent 1-0 after a straight-sets win in the opening round at Roland Garros in 2016. Much has changed since with a maiden Indian Wells quarter-final appearance on the line.

Five-time champion Roger Federer resumes his title defence against unseeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday. The top seed’s only defeat to the 31-year-old came at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Rome on clay nearly four years ago. He leads the FedEx ATP Head2Head ledger 3-1.

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Federer vs Chardy | Coric vs Fritz | Chung vs Cuevas

Should Federer win two more rounds he will hold on to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Four more match wins would see him pull clear of Novak Djokovic with an unprecedented sixth BNP Paribas Open title. Federer has not dropped a set in his previous two matches, while Chardy has gone the distance to get past seeds Fabio Fognini and Adrian Mannarino.

Last year’s inaugural #NextGenATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung is on the cusp of his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final berth. After a resounding straight-sets upset of No. 12 seed Tomas Berdych in the previous round, the 21-year-old South Korean squares off against last year’s Indian Wells quarter-finalist Pablo Cuevas. The 30^th-seeded Uruguayan advanced after No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem retired hurt while trailing a break in the deciding set of their third-round encounter. Chung and Cuevas have never met.

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On the heels of his biggest title in five years in Acapulco – in which he beat three straight Top 10 opponents (Thiem, A. Zverev and Andersson) – Juan Martin del Potro faces countryman and occasional doubles partner Leonardo Mayer for a place in the quarter-finals. The sixth-seeded Argentine beat Mayer in the 2012 US Open third round.

It is the first time since 2013 Del Potro has reached the fourth round in Indian Wells. That year he finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal. In his previous match, the 29-year-old won his fifth straight match against David Ferrer, while Mayer beat Novak Djokovic’s conqueror Taro Daniel.

After Federer (No. 1) and Del Potro (No. 6), Kevin Anderson is only the third of the Top 8 seeds to survive the third round. The South African seventh seed meets Spanish 11^th seed Pablo Carreno Busta in a rematch of their 2017 US Open semi-final, which Anderson won.

Last year, Carreno Busta reached his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Indian Wells, where he fell to Stan Wawrinka. Twice before (2013, 2014) Anderson has reached the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals.

In his 16^th BNP Paribas Open, Feliciano Lopez is only one round away from recording his best result at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. The 36-year-old Spaniard upset eighth seed Jack Sock on Tuesday evening, escaping a tight third-round match 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4.

Sock was looking to return to the semi-finals in Indian Wells (l. to eventual champion Federer in 2017). But Lopez was solid on serve and opportunistic with his return game during the pair’s fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting (2-2), which lasted almost two hours and 30 minutes.

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Neither player saw a break point in the opener, but Lopez came back in the tie-break after Sock led by a mini-break early. The American secured the lone break in the second on set point, knifing a backhand slice that curled inside the line. Up to that point, Lopez had erased all four break-point opportunities.

But in the second game of the decider, Sock slipped and lunged for the ball, landing on his right elbow. He said he was OK during the next changeover but later complained of pain and received treatment during a following break.

Lopez, however, stayed focused and created his opening, breaking Sock for the first time during a 15-point game at 2-2. He served out the set to love.

The Spaniard reached the quarter-finals in 2015 (l. to Murray) and made the fourth round in 2014 and 2016. He’ll try to reach the last eight again when he meets another American in Sam Querrey, who fought past Indian Yuki Bhambri 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 to make the fourth round in Indian Wells for the third time.

Querrey was locked in on serve after the first set, not facing a break point and finishing the third-round affair with 17 aces. The 6’6” right-hander won nearly 70 per cent of his service points (61/91).

It was still a notable tournament for Bhambri, who qualified and was the first Indian to reach the third round in Indian Wells since Somdev Devvarman, who advanced to the fourth round in 2011.

Former World No. 3 Milos Raonic, on the comeback from injuries in 2017, will be making his way up the ATP Rankings in the very near future.

The 32^nd seed won his second match in a row in Indian Wells, beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 to reach the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open for the first time since his final run in 2016 (l. to Djokovic). Raonic missed last year’s tournament because of an injury to his right leg.

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The 6’5″ right-hander was broken in the second set, but regrouped in the decider, not facing a break point to run away with the match. The Canadian finished with 12 aces and won 93 per cent of his first-serve points (39/42). It’s the first time he has won back-to-back matches since the Citi Open in August 2017.

Raonic improved to 4-0 against Sousa in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and is now 3-3 on the season. His other win came against Japan’s Taro Daniel at the Delray Beach Open in February.

Raonic, who beat #NextGenATP countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime to face Sousa, will next meet Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who improved to 3-0 against Dudi Sela of Israel in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win.

Baghdatis qualified for the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event and now has a chance of bringing his time in Indian Wells full circle. On debut, he made the quarter-finals in 2006. The 32-year-old, No. 102 in the ATP Rankings, is 1-3 against Raonic in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with his lone win coming at 2012 Rolex Shanghai Masters.

In the beginning of their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry, David Ferrer dominated Juan Martin del Potro. The Spaniard won six of their first eight matches. Yet in this “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately” world, Del Potro can claim all the bragging rights.

The Argentine made it five in a row against Spanish veteran on Tuesday in Indian Wells, beating Ferrer 6-4, 7-6(3) to advance to the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. It’s Del Potro’s first trip to the Round of 16 since 2013, when he made his first and only Indian Wells final (l. to Nadal).

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His seventh victory against Ferrer was all about persistence. Ferrer saved the first 10 break points he faced until Del Potro broke through in the seventh game. The Argentine wouldn’t break again – Ferrer saved 15/16 break points – but Del Potro didn’t need to as his forehand and always-improving backhand carried him to the straight-sets win.

“I couldn’t break at the beginning of the match. I lost many opportunities to start even better the match, and I got frustration after all those points. I was waiting on more chances, and the chances came in the end of the set, and finally I took one,” Del Potro said. “Then I played solid every service game, and I think I played much better than him in the tie-break.”

Del Potro will next meet countryman Leonardo Mayer, who didn’t face a break point in beating Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-1 in only 75 minutes. The 25-year-old Daniel had stunned World No. 13 Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

“I just want to keep winning. It’s good to feel with this confidence when I get to the court and I play well, but I’m going step-by-step. I will play another Argentinian guy… which is a special match for both. It’s not easy when you play against a friend,” Del Potro said. 

Mayer made the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open for the first time. He had lost in the third round two times in the past (2013, 2016). Del Potro leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 1-0, but their only contest came six years ago at the 2012 US Open.

“We practise a lot together. We train at the same club in Buenos Aires. We grow up together. We win the Davis Cup together. And we have dinners together and we spend a lot of time together,” Del Potro said. “It will be a special match for both. And I know if he has a good day, he’s a very dangerous guy, and he plays solid from the baseline. He plays very flat, and his serves are good enough to beat me or to beat anyone on tour.”