Indian Wells: Defending champ Fritz battles past young Shelton to reach third round

No 4 seed and defending champion Taylor Fritz moved into the third round of the Indian Wells Masters by beating young countryman Ben Shelton 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.

Fritz, ranked a career-high No 5 in the world, will play Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 30 seed, next.

Fritz won the first ATP Masters Series title, and the biggest title, of his career here 12 months ago when he upset Rafael Nadal in straight sets to end the Spaniard’s 20-match unbeaten streak in 2022.

In the previous round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters, Shelton, aged 20 and ranked No 41 in the world, defeated Italian Fabio Fognini (6-4, 6-1).

Indian Wells Masters, other second-round matches (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Tallon Griekspoor (31) beat Guido Pella: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jack Sock: saturday
• Andy Murray beat Radu Albot (LL): 6-4, 6-3
• Marton Fucsovics beat Alex De Minaur (16): 6-4, 6-2
• Tommy Paul (17) beat Jan-Lennard Struff (Q): 6-3, 6-3
• Alex Molcan beat Borna Coric (18): 6-3, 6-3
• Stan Wawrinka beat Miomir Kecmanovic (26): 7-6 (8), 6-4
• Jannik Sinner (11) beat Richard Gasquet: 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (8) beat Pedro Martinez: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Jack Draper beat Daniel Evans (24): 6-4, 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat Jiri Lehecka: 6-4, 6-2
• Frances Tiafoe (14) beat Marcos Giron: 6-2, 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-4, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov (13) beat Oscar Otte: 6-3, 6-3
• Taro Daniel (Q) beat Matteo Berrettini (20): 7-6 (5), 0-6, 6-3
• Ugo Humbert beat Denis Shapovalov (25): 7-5, 6-4
• Alexander Zverev (12) beat Pedro Cachin: 6-3, 6-1
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (23) beat Yibing Wu (WC): 6-4, 6-1
• Alejandro Tabilo (Q) beat Maxime Cressy (32): 7-6 (3), 7-6 (13)
• Jason Kubler beat Grigor Dimitrov (21): 2-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0 ret.
• Jordan Thompson beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (2): 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5)
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Roberto Bautista Agut (22): 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Casper Ruud (3) beat Diego Schwartzman: 6-2, 6-3
• Ilya Ivashka beat Botic van de Zandschulp (28): 7-5, 3-2 ret.
• Cameron Norrie (10) beat Tung-lin Wu: 6-2, 6-4
• Cristian Garin (Q) beat Yoshihito Nishioka (29): 6-4, 6-0
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Holger Rune
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Sebastian Baez
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Lorenzo Musetti