Tennis

[Eddie]

Indian Wells will be Emma Raducanu's first tournament since her US Open win. Seeded 17, she has a Bye in the first round and will play either Osorio Serrano or Sasnovich in the second round. If she gets through her first match she could potentially face Simona Halep in the third round.

Osaka, Barty and Sabalenka are not playing, so Karolina Pliskova, Swiatek and Krejcikova are the top three seeds.

For the men, no Federer, Djokovic, Nadal or Theim, so Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev are the top three seeds. Andy Murray will no doubt be hoping for a good run as he continues his return from injury. Cameron Norrie, I'm sure, will be looking to quickly forget his San Diego final defeat, but hopefully he'll be feeling positive after a good year.

It will be interesting to see how Raducanu gets on, will be fantastic if she can reproduce her US Open form and win it as it'll give her a good chance of making the end of year finals.

I've been keeping up with Andy Murray's performances and he's definitely improving with each match, it feels like he's just a few % away from going deep in tournaments.

The Us Open was thoroughly enjoyable so hopefully we get more of the same. Looking forward to it.

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Women's Draw (singles) - https://www.wtatennis.com/tournament/609/indian-wells/2021/draws

Men's Draw (singles & doubles) - https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/indian-wells/404/draws?matchType=Singles

Live Tennis Rankings - https://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking

Live Women's Race - https://live-tennis.eu/en/wta-race (Raducanu currently 15th)

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[Eddie]

Andy Murray has drawn Mannarino in the first round, if he wins that he will face Alcaraz in the second.

Norrie and Evans have both been given a first round Bye.

Boo. My free amazon prime trial that I used to watch the US open ran out today.

Saw the result of Norrie's final defeat on the BBC website the other day. Ouch.

Norrie played really well throughout the week, managing to beat Shapovalov and Rublev, but his game wasn't there in the final, that and Ruud was very strong.

I'm sure Murray felt a bit better, seeing Ruud win the title, after losing to him early on in the tournament. Murray had his chances in that match, tbf.

Rooting for Emma. Would be incredible if she could follow up the US with a 1000.

mens side is just a massive meh

Yeah, to start the year off placed 150 (or whatever it was) in the rankings and then find yourself winning a slam and possibly making it to the end of year finals is quite the achievement.

Her coach for Indian Wells is Jeremy Bates... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/58797409

 

[Eddie]

Emma Raducanu will be playing Aliaksandra Sasnovich (currently ranked 94) on Friday night.

Andy Murray's match will be Friday night. too.

Not sure on the times yet.

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, late but I'll still be watching. Was planning on staying up tomorrow night as well for the boxing.

I think AM said he went away and bought a new pair of shoes while he was looking for his old ones, so at least he's got a spare pair now.

It's just bizarre, I can't fathom why he would only have one pair of shoes available.

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, not a terrific start but things starting to go her way.

Edit: Not to be. Apart from a brief moment in the second set Raducanu looked a little subdued, a little lacking in energy. I don't think she enjoyed any part of that match, tbh.

Murray up next.

 

[Eddie]

Comfortable win for AM against Mannarino last night but Alcaraz in the next round will be a different kettle of fish.

Tonight, for the Brits, Evans takes on Nishikori and Norrie faces Sandgren.

 

[Eddie]

Evans and Norrie both through to the next round.

Murray plays Alcaraz tonight, should be a good match.

 

[Eddie]

You can get a free trial of Amazon Prime, dunno if that's an option for you.

Tennis on there is pretty good these days, they have a lot of tournaments.

 

[Eddie]

Murray's just took the second set!

 

[Eddie]

Excellent win that for Murray, great to see.

Every single pundit on Amazon wrote him off before the match, including Petchey, who has worked with Murray recently.

He'll be playing the winner of Zverev|Brooksby in the next round.

 

[Eddie]

Zverev in the next round. Murray beat him last year and has never lost to him, so let's hope that continues, but another tough match.

Tonight, Evans vs Schwartzman @ 7pm and Norrie vs Bautista Agut @ 2am.

In the women's game, Sasnovich, who beat Raducanu, went on to beat Simona Halep last night, which is some going for a player ranked 100, or thereabouts, before the tournament started.

I'm sure that helps to ease the pain of defeat for Raducanu, even if just a little.

 

[Eddie]

I think I've already used my free prime unfortunately

Andy Murray did well it seems after dropping the first set?

I wonder if he feels he can relax a bit more now that the press have shifted much more focus to Emma now?

Yeah, it was a good performance from Murray. He looked physically stronger and fitter than Alcaraz - in the commentary they were talking about how Murray has switched from spending so much time in the gym to spending most of his time on court, making himself 'tennis-fit rather than gym-fit', which seems to be a good call as he has started playing a lot better recently.

I think the external pressure is definitely off Murray these days - most people are just amazed he's still competing - but he still puts a lot of pressure on himself, by the looks of things.

 

[Eddie]

Haha, yeah well I've hardly moved over the last 2 years myself, just going up and down the stairs is knackering for me these days, thinking about getting a bungalow

Hardly been over the door since maybe February last year - my general fitness has dropped off and my weight has increased!

 

[Eddie]

Speaking of fitness levels, Norrie must be one of the fittest players on the tour, he just never looks tired. Just finished watching his match from last night against Bautista Agut and he looks very strong, continuing his impressive year. He goes on to play Tommy Paul in the next round, who beat Rublev last night.

Murray is playing Zverev tonight, the match is third on, Amazon are saying possibly a 9:30pm start.

Should be good. Are you watching this tournament @Pigeon_Killer?

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, tbh I don't expect Murray to win this one either, but you never know.

He's come close to beating top 10 players recently so I'm hoping tonight will be the night.

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, he's definitely improving. He's upped his level in the second set, in a similar pattern to his last match, so let's hope he can keep it up for the rest of the match like he did then.

It feels like he's just a few % away from beating some of these top players.

 

[Eddie]

Zverev doesn't like those overheads does he!

I really hope this goes to a third!

 

[Eddie]

Yeah, can't complain, just has to keep on going and it'll come, I think.

 

[Eddie]

I’m going to disagree. I reckon he’s finished at the top level. As annoying and frustrating as that is. It’s high level sport.

Imo it's the wrong time to be writing him off, Zverev is a top 5 player and Murray did not look out of his depth at any moment.

He still believes he can win these matches and I'm not going to disagree with him.

It's all about staying injury free, if he can do that anything is possible.

 

[Eddie]

I agree, he's still got a lot of work to do but he's moving in the right direction, looking better with each match.

Rusedski et al wrote him off before the Alcaraz match and they would have only written him off like that if they had not been watching his recent matches - Murray's level was a complete surprise to them. Tim Henman was the only one who knew Murray had been playing to a higher level recently, commenting that Murray lost to two players who went on to win the tournament and that he had opportunities in both matches, same as last night against Zverev.

For me, the next step in Murray's return from injury has to be winning 3 or 4 matches in a row, maybe even making it to a semi-final. That's what I'm hoping for anyway, he needs to start climbing the rankings.