Indian Wells : Paul books spot in maiden Masters 1000 quarter-final, beats lucky loser Nardi

American Tommy Paul, the No 17 seed, won against Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Wednesday.

Paul, ranked No 17, will play Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 9 seed, next in his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.

The American beat Alex Michelsen (6-2, 6-2) and Frenchman Ugo Humbert, the No 14 seed (6-4, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters.

“I love, absolutely love playing on home soil, playing in the States. Nothing really makes me happier than playing in front of the U.S. crowd, so it’s super exciting,” Paul said after his win. “Not just for me but for U.S. tennis. Obviously we’ve had some good results here in the past. I think Fritz has made quarters like four or five times and won the tournament, made semis last year, I think. And Foe made semis last year. We’ve had some Americans play some really good tennis here. I think it’s exciting for the fans here. I think last year, or maybe it was the year before, it was, when I really started feeling, like, crowds following us around and really supporting us. I mean, that makes it so much more fun.”

I think it was, something like 17 times in the first set today, which I would love to have that amount every, like, every match.

Paul added that he has been working on working his way to the net more often in his matches and he was happy with that aspect of his game today.

“It’s pretty simple. It’s just, getting to the net more overall. I’m not sure, I haven’t looked at the stats yet, but I think it was, something like 17 times in the first set today, which I would love to have that amount every, like, every match, you know. That’s when I’m playing my best tennis.”

Earlier in the tournament, Nardi, ranked No 123, won against Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (6-3, 3-6, 6-3) and Serb Novak Djokovic, the top seed (6-4, 3-6, 6-3).

Indian Wells Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 9.495.555, most recent results first):

• Taylor Fritz vs. Holger Rune
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Grigor Dimitrov: wednesday
• Casper Ruud beat Gael Monfils: 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Jannik Sinner (3) beat Ben Shelton (16): 7-6 (4), 6-1
• Alexander Zverev (6) beat Alex De Minaur (10): 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Fabian Marozsan: 6-3, 6-3
• Jiri Lehecka (32) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (11): 6-2, 6-4