Top Singles Stars Pick Up Doubles Wins At Indian Wells

Doubles was the hot ticket on Friday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal all taking the court ahead of their singles campaigns.

Teaming up with Bernard Tomic, Nadal survived a tense second-set tie-break to secure a 6-4, 7-6(7) victory over Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa in the night session on Stadium 1. Nadal and Tomic, playing together for the first time, let slip three match points at 6/3 in the tie-break, but regrouped to convert their fourth opportunity after one hour and 33 minutes.

Nadal is a former doubles champion at the BNP Paribas Open, lifting the trophy in 2010 and 2012 with Marc Lopez, who was courtside to watch his friend on Friday evening.

Murray teamed up with fellow Brit Daniel Evans for a 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 victory over Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez. The Scot is looking for his first ATP World Tour doubles crown in almost six years, since winning the Tokyo crown with his older brother, Jamie Murray, in 2011.

Djokovic and Serbian countryman Viktor Troicki celebrated with a Bryans-esque chest-bump as they battled to a 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas. They could next face defending champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, should the French pair overcome John Isner and Jack Sock on Saturday.

A packed crowd watch Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka join forces, but the Bulgarian-Swiss duo fell in the first round to Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, 6-4, 3-6, 10-3.

German brothers Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Dominic Thiem 7-6(4), 6-4 for a place in the second round. The Zverevs won their first team title last month in Montpellier (d. Martin/Nestor) in the same week that Alexander won the singles crown.

In other first-round action, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fernando Verdasco defeated Tomas Berdych and Philipp Petzschner 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-3, while Steve Johnson and Vasek Pospisil overcame Marcin Matkowski and Alexander Peya 3-6, 6-4, 11-9.

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