Indian Wells: Djokovic gains 400th Masters win over valiant Vukic

Serb Novak Djokovic, the top seed, beat Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Indian Wells Masters at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Saturday night.

Vukic showed why he has previously been ranked in the top 50, playing well to keep pace with Djokovic and force a deciding set. The meeting was the first between the pair, with Vukic originally hailing from Serbia.

With the win, Djokovic becomes just the third man to record 50+ victories at Indian Wells, behind Roger Federer (66) and Rafael Nadal (60). It also sees him surpass Federer with the most ATP Masters 1000 match wins on hard court with 265, and become the only player in history to have claimed 40+ Masters titles and won 400+ Masters matches.

Vukic goes toe-to-toe with Djokovic

After a fast start by Djokovic, the Aussie came out firing in the second set to go up 3-0. After the world No 1 broke back to level the set at 3-3, Vukic was not phased. Applying himself in the long rallies and capialising on errors from Djokovic, he went on to win the set 7-5.

“He played amazing, really he deserved a great credit and applause at the end of the match,” said Djokovic after the match. “Quality was really high, particularly in the second set and beginning of the third. Was difficult to go through him. He was going for it.”

However, brilliant serving by Djokovic in the third set enabled him to up his return game as well and gain the necessary break to close out the set 6-3. He now moves into the third round where he’ll play Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi next.

“I just managed to crack the code in the third set,” the Serb explained. “Once I broke his serve, I feel like I managed to step it up a bit and finish in style.”

In the previous round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters, Vukic, ranked No 69, won against Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki (7-6 (4), 7-6 (6)).

Indian Wells Masters 1000, other second-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 9.495.555, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Gael Monfils vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Casper Ruud vs. Lukas Klein
• Tommy Paul vs. Alex Michelsen
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Roman Safiullin: 6-4, 6-2
• Lorenzo Musetti (26) beat Denis Shapovalov: 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
• Sebastian Baez (19) beat Fabio Fognini (WC): 7-5, 6-3
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Alejandro Tabilo: 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Grigor Dimitrov (13) beat Alexandre Muller: 7-5, 6-2
• Arthur Fils beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (23): 6-3, 6-4
• Luca Nardi beat Zhizhen Zhang: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
• Adrian Mannarino (21) beat Tomas Machac: 6-1, 6-2
• Cameron Norrie (28) beat Lorenzo Sonego: 6-4, 6-4
• Ugo Humbert (14) beat Patrick Kypson (WC): 6-4, 6-4
• Milos Raonic vs. Holger Rune
• Frances Tiafoe (18) beat Dusan Lajovic: 6-3, 6-3
• Thiago Seyboth Wild (Q) beat Karen Khachanov (15): 6-1, 7-5
• Jan-Lennard Struff (25) beat Borna Coric: 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-6 (9)
• Alexander Bublik (20) beat Juncheng Shang (Q): 6-4, 6-1
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Matteo Arnaldi: 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-1
• Jiri Lehecka (32) beat Brandon Nakashima (WC): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor (27) beat Yannick Hanfmann: 6-3, 6-3
• Ben Shelton (16) beat Jakub Mensik (WC): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Fabian Marozsan beat Nicolas Jarry (24): 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (11) beat Lucas Pouille (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Andy Murray: 7-6 (3), 6-1
• Alexander Zverev (6) beat Christopher O’Connell: 6-4, 6-4
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (31) beat Constant Lestienne (Q): 6-4, 6-1
• Alex De Minaur (10) beat Taro Daniel: 6-1, 6-2
• Jannik Sinner (3) beat Thanasi Kokkinakis: 6-3, 6-0
• Francisco Cerundolo (22) beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-2, 3-1 ret.