Shelton downs Nakashima to roll into maiden Indian Wells quarter-final

No 11 seed Ben Shelton advanced to the last eight of the Indian Wells Masters by defeating No 32 seed Brandon Nakashima 7-6 (6), 6-1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Wednesday.

The two traded breaks from 2-2, before the set was extended to a tiebreak, where the eleventh seed claimed the set on his second time of asking. From there, it was one-way traffic for Shelton who broke Nakashima in his next two service games in the second set, and served out the set 6-1 – without having to face another break point.

After the match, Shelton said:

“For me, the second set was outstanding. Whenever you can get a two-break win in a set against a server like that, it’s really encouraging for where my level is at, where my serving is at, where my returning is at, how I’m moving on the court, so I’m pleased with my performance today.

There are things that I’m adding to my game, in each and every week and every day, just trying to implement some of those things this week. It’s not working all the time, sometimes, you know, I make execution errors, but I feel like my intent has been really good this week and that’s been a huge part of my success.”

The American is 0-2 in Masters 1000 quarter-finals, but is hoping that he can go that one step further.

“I feel confident,” said Shelton. “Obviously, it’s a big goal for me, it’s something I want to keep working on and improving by going deeper at the big events. I’ve had some success at slams, and Masters are a big goal for me this year because there are so many throughout the year, and such high stakes. So I’m pleased to be into another quarter-final but definitely searching for more.”

Shelton, ranked No 12, will face the winner of the match between No 13 seed Jack Draper and American Taylor Fritz, the No 3 seed, next.

Ahead of his victory, Ben Shelton won against Argentinian Mariano Navone (6-3, 6-2) and Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 22 seed (6-3, 7-5).

Nakashima, ranked No 33, beat Australian Rinky Hijikata (7-5, 6-1) and Italian Matteo Arnaldi (6-2, 6-4) 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
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Alex De Minaur
• 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