Indian Wells Masters: Cerundolo upsets out-of-sorts De Minaur to reach quarter-finals

Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo, the No 25 seed, won against Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 9 seed, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters in California on Wednesday.

The victory sees Cerundolo through to his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final, gaining revenge on De Minaur for his loss at the Australian Open in January.

It was a very similar match to their Melbourne meeting, with a war of attrition unfolding from the baseline and plenty of errors from both ends.

This time, however, the fast-flying, high-bouncing conditions suited Cerundolo’s game better, with the Argentinian able to hit through and take advantage of his opportunities a little more in California.

Break points and errors galore in messy upset

After going 15-4 across his first 19 matches of the season, De Minaur simply did not look himself against Cerundolo.

The Australian failed to find his range across the one-hour, 50-minute match, spraying 39 unforced errors and hitting just nine winners. While Cerundolo made an equal amount of errors, he was able to pair that with a respectable 22 winners, which ended up being the defining factor in this round-of-16 clash.

The world No 26 edged out to an early lead, breaking De Minaur in the opening game before withstanding three break points to hold for a 2-0 lead. This would be the story of the set, as Cerundolo saved 11 of 13 break points, while capitalising on three of his four chances.

After defending set point in the 10th game, Cerundolo went on a tear to win 10 of the next 11 points, finally finding his forehand and dropshot to close out the set 7-5.

The second was more straight forward for the Argentine, with just one break point on his own serve as he broke De Minaur on three occasions for a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

Cerundolo, ranked No 26, will face the winner of the match between Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 14 seed, and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, next.

Ahead of his victory, the Argentinian beat American wildcard Mackenzie McDonald (4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1) and Dutch lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp (6-3, 6-4).

De Minaur, ranked No 10, defeated Belgian David Goffin (6-2, 6-2) and Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 21 seed (6-4, 6-0) earlier in the tournament.

Indian Wells Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 13.042.410, most recent results first):

• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Jack Draper vs. Taylor Fritz
• Ben Shelton (11) beat Brandon Nakashima (32): 7-6 (6), 6-1
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Tommy Paul (10): 6-4, 6-0
• Arthur Fils (20) beat Marcos Giron: 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
• Holger Rune (12) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (8): 6-4, 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Yosuke Watanuki (Q): 7-6 (4), 6-1