We are one week into the 2019 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, and one could argue it has been the Canadians that have been the headliners to date. On the men’s side, Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario and Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario have qualified to the round of 16, while Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec has proven he deserves to be in the conversation as one of the elite tennis players in the world. Meanwhile on the women’s side, Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ontario has reached the quarterfinals.
Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov and Andreescu all delivered upsets in the tournament to date. Auger-Aliassime upset the ninth seed, (Australian Open semifinalist and the 2018 Rogers Cup finalist) Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, handily 6-4, 6-2, in the second round before losing a close battle to Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan in three sets in the third round. Shapovalov beat the 10th seed, and the 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 6-2, in the third round, and will now play Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the round of 16.
Andreescu has already beaten two seeded players to reach the quarterfinals. She upset the 32nd ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia (the 2014 Australian Open finalist) 6-2, 6-2 in the second round, and then beat the 18th ranked Qiang Wang of China 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. Andreescu’s next opponent will be the 2016 French Open champion and 2017 Wimbledon champion, Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Raonic meanwhile has simply taken care of business. He has beaten Americans Sam Querrey and Marcos Giron. In Raonic’s win over Giron, Raonic delivered an excellent comeback as he was down 3-0 in the third and deciding set before winning the set 6-4. Raonic will now play German Jan-Lennard Struff in the fourth round. Struff beat Raonic in the first round of Dubai, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in late February.
