The “Mini Major” is here. Last year’s winner, Juan Marin Del Potro, is out with an injury this time around. Every other top seed is here though (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic etc…) The top 32 seeds all get a first round bye in this tournament. Only 2 unseeded players have made it to the quarterfinals here in the past 5 years. The best players take this tournament seriously. Nadal is 50-10 in this tournament. Djokovic is 49-8. Zverev is in-form. Federer is still Federer. Kevin Anderson is back after suffering some elbow pain. Monfils and Tsitsipas are looking to stay in solid form as well. It will be an exciting tournament.
91-44-6 on tennis in 2018 up 42.63 units
27-24 on tennis in 2019 down 28.19 units
Radu Albot at -225 for 5 units. Albot won in Delray Beach already this season. He has been producing consistently this year. Copil has lost to worse players on this surface recently than Albot. The top ranked Moldovan gets the win here.
Hubert Hurkacz at -191 for 4 units. Hurkacz made his first quarterfinal recently beating Kei Nishikori to get there. This is his first meeting against Donald Young. Young has 6 first round exits here at Indian Wells. Young doesn’t have a main draw ATP win since the Citi Open 10 months ago.
Andreas Seppi at -194 for 4 units. Seppi is 6-2 in first round matches here. Peter Gojowczyk doesn’t scare me even with all those consonants to end his name. Seppi is in better form and won their only other meeting on this surface.
Ryan Harrison -1.5 sets at -106 for 4 units. Ryan Harrison keeps playing Nick Kyrgios in the first round of tournaments and keeps losing to him. No shame in that. Well Nadal felt shame in losing to Kyrgios.. but Nadal has been a little hot-headed and, for lack of a better word, rude lately. Harrison is 7-2 in first rounds here. Roberto Carballes Baena, Harrison’s opponent, is winless on hardcourts this season and is more of clay player. Ryan beat Roberto in straight sets at Wimbledon in their only other meeting. Harrison can beat Schwartzman in the next round too if he wins here.
Tennys Sangren at +103 for 3 units. Mannarino has not beat anyone of note lately and has struggled over the past year. Sandgren has lost 4 in a row, but he did win at Auckland earlier this season. This is the perfect spot for Sandgren to start rounding back into form.