Tsitsipas’ No 1 hopes fall by the Desert as Thompson upsets Greek in Indian Wells second round

Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas came into the ‘Sunshine Double’ (Indian Wells and Miami) with a chance to leave as world No 1 by the end of the back-to-back Masters Series events.

However, those hopes were dashed on Friday as the second seed was knocked out in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters by Australian Jordan Thompson.

The 28-year-old Thompson scored the second top 10 win of his career, the first since 2017, to beat Tsitsipas 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in two hours and 37 minutes at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

To have a win like that is incredible.

Thompson

“It’s unreal. At a Masters 1000, in the (Indian Wells) Tennis Garden here,” Thompson said after his win. “It’s one of my favourite tournaments, I think a lot of players’ favourite tournaments to play. To have a win like that is incredible. (I’m) really happy.”

In the first round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters, the Australian defeated the former world No 6 Gael Monfils (6-3, 6-1). The Frenchman was playing his first match since August 2022 due to injury.

Thompson, ranked No 87, will face Chilean qualifier Alejandro Tabilo next. Tabilo upset the 32nd seed Maxime Cressy 7-6, 7-6 in another second round match on Friday.

Tsitsipas had complained of his shoulder bothering him while speaking to the press on Media Day, saying that he did not feel he had a chance to go deep in Indian Wells or Miami and was hoping to be 100 percent for the clay court season.

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With an injured right shoulder, Tsitsipas thinks he is not “able to go far in Indian Wells and Miami” and wants to be 100% for the clay season

Tennis Majors

Indian Wells Masters, other second-round matches (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8,800,000):

• Jason Kubler beat Grigor Dimitrov (21): 2-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0 ret.
• 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
• Taylor Fritz vs. Ben Shelton
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jack Sock
• Guido Pella vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Marton Fucsovics vs. Alex De Minaur
• Borna Coric vs. Alex Molcan
• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Tommy Paul
• Andy Murray vs. Pablo Carreno Busta
• Jannik Sinner vs. Richard Gasquet
• Pedro Martinez vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Daniel Evans vs. Jack Draper
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Marcos Giron
• Andrey Rublev vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Taro Daniel
• Karen Khachanov vs. Oscar Otte
• Ugo Humbert vs. Denis Shapovalov
• Pedro Cachin vs. Alexander Zverev
• Yibing Wu vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Maxime Cressy vs. Alejandro Tabilo

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