INDIAN WELLS, California: Andy Murray squandered a 4-1 lead in the third set before losing a tiebreaker to world number 53 Federico Delbonis and exiting the BNP Paribas Open third round 6-4 4-6 7-6(3), while Swiss seventh seed Belinda Bencic and former champion Ana Ivanovic were also sent packing here on Monday.
World number two Murray let his commanding lead evaporate on a warm, windy day at Indian Wells and needed to break the Argentine left-hander in the 12th game just to force the tiebreaker, which Delbonis won 7-3. Delbonis took advantage of a series of Murray errors to run off the last five points of the decider to end the two hour, 46 minute struggle in Stadium 1.
Delbonis, who reached the quarter-finals this year in Rio and Sao Paulo, varied his strategy against Murray and took advantage of some weakness in the Scot’s serve.
Delbonis will meet Frenchman Gael Monfils in the fourth round after the 13th seed dispatched Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3. 12th seed Milos Raonic of Canada advanced to the fourth round 6-3 3-0 when Australian Bernard Tomic retired in the second set.
Tomic had complained about an injured wrist before the match against the hard-serving Raonic, who will meet Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round. The sixth seed beat Croatian Borna Coric 6-1 7-6(3). Eighth seed Richard Gasquet of France advanced past Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 2-6 6-2 6-1. His fourth-round opponent will be Croatian Marin Cilic, who defeated Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-4 6-3.
Belgian David Goffin defeated Argentine Guido Pella 4-6 6-3 6-2 and will next meet Stan Wawrinka after the Swiss third seed beat Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4 7-6(5).
In the women’s third round matches, the 97th-ranked Rybarikova, who had eliminated 31st seed Daria Gavrilova in her previous match, got by the powerful Bencic 6-4 3-6 6-3, while Czech Karolina Pliskova dumped Ivanovic 6-2 6-0 in 49 minutes.
Pliskova’s game clicked into gear in spectacular fashion, reeling off 10 consecutive games to close out her one-sided victory.
Ivanovic entered the tournament fresh off a run to the quarter-finals and semi-finals in Dubai and St Petersburg, respectively, while Pliskova had suffered a couple of early exits in the Middle East. Pliskova, perhaps, perked up in seeing Ivanovic across the net.
