We now know who will be in the third round at the 2026 Indian Wells Masters 1000 Series tennis tournament in southern California. Among the list of 64 players left in the tournament are four Canadians–Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario, Gabriel Diallo and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec on the men’s side, and Victoria Mboko of Burlington, Ontario on the women’s side.
What we saw from Shapovalov and Diallo over the last two days were two very impressive upsets in the second round. Shapovalov defeated the 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, and Diallo defeated the 17th seed, Andrey Rublev of Russia, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
This was Shapovalov’s second career win over Etcheverry. He previously beat Etcheverry 7-6, 6-3 in the second round of Madrid in 2024. In Friday’s win, Shapovalov had 14 aces compared to four for Etcheverry. However, the third round matchup for Shapovalov will be very difficult. That is because he is facing four-time grand slam champion Jannik Sinner of Italy, the world number two. Shapovalov and Sinner have beaten each other once. Shapovalov won 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the 2021 Australian Open.
Diallo had 12 aces compared to six for Rublev. There was no doubt that Diallo had the advantage when it came to self confidence. Rublev got down on himself on a regular basis after missing particular shots. Diallo next gets fellow Auger-Aliassime in the third round. Auger-Aliassime won their only prior matchup, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of Basel in 2025.
