THE top contenders in the 2020 Indian Wells fantasy tennis competition moved through to the third round after a rather predictable day of results. Top 10 seeds, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and David Goffin all breezed through without too much trouble, while only three unseeded players made it through to the next round of competition.

The almost biggest upset was eighth seed, Gael Monfils needing three sets to put away Swedish young gun, Mikael Ymer. Dropping the first set, the Frenchman had to fight back from a second set break to get home in a couple of nail-biting tiebreakers, 4-6 7-6 7-6. The going was much easier for the defending champion Thiem, who ousted Lloyd Harris in just 49 minutes only dropping one game in the process. Roberto Bautisa Agut had a similar struggle to Monfils in battling Australian Nick Kyrgios, but went down 3-6 6-1 6-4 in just over two hours to book a spot in the third round.

The match of the day saw unseeded German, Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated 28th seed, Hubert Hurkacz 4-6 6-4 7-6. Always tricky to play against, Kohlschreiber had to work his way back into the contest from a set down, broke again and then won a third set tiebreaker to make his way into the Round of 32. Joining him in the last 32 were a couple of unseeded Americans in Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul. Tiafoe downed Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, while Paul upset compatriot Taylor Fritz to book a spot in the next round. Also through to the next round were young stars Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov, while Cristian Garin, Grigor Dimitrov, Daniel Evans, Milos Raonic and Borna Coric also got through to the next round without dropping a set.

Looking ahead to day four, world number one Novak Djokovic comes to play against Brit Kyle Edmund, while Australian John Millman will try and take down third seed Russian, Daniil Medvedev. Of the matches set to be entertaining, seventh seed Matteo Berrettini clashes with Croatia’s Marin Cilic, Italian Next Gen Finals winner Jannik Sinner locks horns with Karen Khachanov, and 32nd seed Jan-Lennard Stuff takes on Frenchman, Gilles Simon.

ROUND OF 64 RESULTS:

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated Pablo Cuevas (URU) 6-3 6-1
[4] Dominic Thiem (AUT) defeated Lloyd Harris (RSA) 6-1 6-0
[5] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 6-0 6-3
[8] Gael Monfils (FRA) defeated Mikael Ymer (SWE) 4-6 7-6 7-6
[9] David Goffin (BEL) defeated Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB) 6-4 6-0
[11] Roberto Bautisa Agut (ESP) defeated Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 3-6 6-1 6-4
[13] Andrey Rublev (RUS) defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) 6-3 6-1
[15] Denis Shapovalov (CAN) defeated Jiri Vesely (CZE) 7-6 6-3
[17] Cristian Garin (CHI) defeated Gregoire Barrere (FRA) 6-4 6-0
[18] Grigor Dimitrov (BLR) defeated Richard Gasquet (FRA) 7-5 6-2
Frances Tiafoe (USA) defeated [22] Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 6-4 6-4
Tommy Paul (USA) defeated [23] Taylor Fritz (USA) 6-4 2-6 7-6
[27] Daniel Evans (GBR) defeated Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-4 5-7 6-2
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) defeated [28] Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 4-6 6-4 7-6
[29] Milos Raonic (CAN) defeated Steve Johnson (USA) 7-6 6-3
[31] Borna Coric (CRO) defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 6-2 6-2