Indian Wells Masters: Fritz comes from behind to beat Tabilo

American Taylor Fritz, the No 3 seed, reached the last 16 of the Indian Wells Masters by winning against Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, the No 30 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in California on Monday.

The 2022 champion finished strong, winning 10 of the last 11 games to book his place in the fourth round for the fifth-consecutive year.

It was not a perfect showing by the 27-year-old who sprayed 38 unforced errors across the one-hour, 54-minute clash, but his 28 winners were enough to get him across the line comfortably in the end.

“I just stopped making super-random mistakes. For the first set and a half, I just, for no reason, was just missing balls. I couldn’t even imagine, I don’t know why I was missing them,” Fritz said. “But even with that, it was still a tight match, so I knew if I just cleaned it up and stopped giving away so many free points that I could probably turn it around.”

I think it’s a tough draw to get him in the round of 16 as a top-4 seed.

Fritz, ranked No 4, will next play No 13 seed Jack Draper, with whom he has split four previous meetings.

“It’s going to be a tough match. I think it’s a tough draw to get him in the round of 16 as a top-4 seed. He’s a very good player. I think he’s probably better than his ranking is, and yeah, we have had some tight ones,” Fritz said about his next opponent.

Ahead of his victory, the American beat Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante (6-3, 7-5).

Tabilo, ranked No 31, won against Serb Dusan Lajovic (6-3, 7-5) in the previous round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters.

Indian Wells Masters 1000, other third-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 13.042.410, most recent results first):

• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Gael Monfils
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Karen Khachanov vs. Ben Shelton
• Brandon Nakashima (32) beat Matteo Arnaldi: 6-2, 6-4
• Alex De Minaur (9) beat Hubert Hurkacz (21): 6-4, 6-0
• Francisco Cerundolo (25) beat Botic van de Zandschulp (LL): 6-3, 6-4
• Jack Draper beat Jenson Brooksby: 7-5, 6-4
• Yosuke Watanuki (Q) beat Frances Tiafoe (16): 6-4, 7-6 (6)
• Arthur Fils (20) beat Lorenzo Musetti (15): 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Holger Rune (12) beat Ugo Humbert (18): 5-7, 6-4, 7-5
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Alex Michelsen (31): 2-0 ret.
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) beat Matteo Berrettini (28): 6-3, 6-3
• Marcos Giron beat Alexei Popyrin (26): 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
• Tommy Paul (10) beat Cameron Norrie: 6-3, 7-5
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (29): 7-6 (3), 6-3