Andy Murray is scheduled to be among the players in action Thursday as first-round play in the $10.1 million BNP Paribas Open concludes.
The world’s top-ranked men’s player from Nov. 7, 2016-Aug. 20, 2017 and three-time Grand Slam singles champion is set to face Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the third match on Indian Wells Tennis Garden’s Stadium 1 Court in the first meeting between the two.
This is the 16th year Murray has played at the BNP Paribas Open.
“I’ve always enjoyed coming back here,” said Murray, whose best performance in the tournament was reaching the final in 2009. “At this stage of my career, you want to make the most of every chance you get to play in these sorts of events. You never know when it will be the last time. Definitely try to take it all in.”
The 35-year-old Murray is 55th on the Association of Tennis Professional rankings. He began the year ranked 49th and dropped to 66th Jan. 16 following a first-round loss to American Sebastian Korda in the Adelaide International and then dropped to 70th Feb. 13.
Despite competing with a metal hip, Murray reached the third round of the Australian Open and rose to 61st in the rankings released Feb. 6. He didn’t play again until the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, which began Feb. 20, and dropped to 70th. Murray reached the tournament’s final, rising to 52nd.
“I feel like physically this is the best I’ve felt for a long time so if I do have to play three or four matches in a few days, I believe that I’m able to do that and still play at a high level,” said Murray, who underwent the first of two right hip surgeries in January 2018.
Murray won the most recent of his 46 singles career titles in the 2019 European Open.
The 23-year-old Etcheverry rose to career-best 61st in the rankings after reaching the final of last week’s Movistar Chile Open, his first final on the ATP Tour.
The first night match on the Stadium 1 Court will be a meeting between the two most recent American female Grand Slam champions, Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, and Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.
Kenin was ranked 415th in August after an ankle injury sidelined her for four months, and 280th in January before reaching the semfinals of the Hobart International, her first tour-level semifinal since making the 2020 Roland Garros final.
The afternoon session will begin at 11 a.m. and night session at 5 p.m.
The 32 seeded players in the men’s and women’s draw receive first-round byes. They will begin play Friday or Saturday.
Wednesday and Thursday’s losers will receive $18,660 while the winners will earn at least $30,885.
The two youngest players in the women’s singles draw were among Wednesday’s winners as first-round play began.
Seventeen-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova rallied for a 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Egyptian Mayar Sherif while Fruhvirtova’s fellow Czech, 18-year-old Linda Noskova, was a 7-6 (7), 6-1 winner over Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu.
Fruhvirtova won the final four games of the match for her sixth victory in 10 singles matches in 2023, including three at the Australian Open, where she reached the round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time.
“I had my chances in the first set,” said Fruhvirtova, who is 53rd on the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, one spot head of Sherif. “It could have been three-all instead of 0-6. I was trying to keep it in mind and I was thinking, new match, new beginning — just keep believing and fighting.”
Noskova, who is ranked 54th, trailed 3-1 in the first set and faced a set point in the tiebreaker. She won the first five games of the second set against the 38th-ranked Begu.
Belgian Elise Mertens, the highest-ranked woman in action Wednesday, lost to Xinyu Wang of China, 6-3, 6-1. The 27-year-old Mertens is ranked 37th, 30 spots ahead of the 21-year-old Wang.
Shelby Rogers was a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 winner over fellow American Katie Volynets.
Rogers won five of the final six games of the first set after trailing 3-1, including breaking Volynets’ serve in the final game. In the second set, Volynets broke Rogers’ serve in the fifth game and held serve for the rest of the set.
Rogers took control in the third set following an early exchange of service breaks.
“I think in the third set, I served a little bit better, just tried to work the point a little bit more, not end it too soon, and stay in there as long as I could,” the 41st-ranked Rogers said after her victory over the 74th-ranked Volynets.
The highest-ranked men’s player in action Wednesday, 38th-ranked Diego Schwartzman, was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over fellow Argentine Federico Coria for his second victory in eight tour-level singles matches in 2023.
Brandon Nakashima maintained his perfect first-round record at the BNP Paribas Open with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory over fellow American John Isner.
“This tournament is one of the tournaments I used to always to come to as a kid,” said Nakashima, who lives in San Diego. “It is super nice to feel at home here and have all my family and friends come out in support.”
Czech Jiri Lehecka earned his first ATP Masters 1000 win with a 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory over Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech. The 21-year-old lost in the first round of the 2022 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.