One week after picking up his 500th hard-court win in Dubai, Andy Murray earned his 31st match victory at the BNP Paribas Open with a strong opening performance on Wednesday in Indian Wells. The Briton was sharp from the start in a 6-3, 6-2 win against fellow veteran David Goffin that extended his perfect Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the Belgian qualifier to 8-0.
After starting the 2024 season 0-4, Murray has now won each of his past three first-round matches. Strong serving keyed his latest victory, with the 36-year-old winning 85 per cent (23/27) of his first-serve points and not facing a break point in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
"That's the best I've served here," Murray said post-match. "I've always struggled serving certainly the last 10 years or so when I've been here for whatever reason. Today felt much better."
Starting strong 💪@andy_murray with his highest forehand #ShotQuality score of 2024 so far 👏
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) March 7, 2024
Murray's backhand was also 🪨 solid, landing 91% (82/90) in the court 📈#TennisInsights | @atptour | @BNPPARIBASOPEN pic.twitter.com/0Fqw5sCmxN
Murray is making his 16th Indian Wells appearance and now holds a 31-15 record at the ATP Masters 1000. His best result in the desert is a final run in 2009. He will bid to keep his 2024 campaign on track when he meets fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the second round.
Brandon Nakashima has been racking up plenty of ATP Challenger Tour wins this season, including one title run. On Wednesday, the American translated that success to the ATP Tour with an opening victory in Indian Wells.
In his first tour-level match since last October at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, Nakashima scored a a 6-3, 7-6(3) result against countryman Christopher Eubanks without facing a break point.
"First of all, walking onto this court is super special for me," he said after earning the win on centre court. "Playing a guy like Chris, who has a big game, big serve, I knew I just had to do my best to hold my serve and knew I was going to get opportunities on his serve.
"I think this surface favors me a little bit more. With the slower surface, the ball's not coming at me as fast. But I'm happy with the way I played."
Off to a solid start in #TennisParadise 🌴 @b_nakashima knocks out Eubanks 6-3 7-6(3).@BNPPARIBASOPEN pic.twitter.com/kfLPQGA54G
— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 6, 2024
Nakashima converted on his lone break chance of the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and closed out the match in one hour, 21 minutes by seeing home a 3/0 lead in the second-set tie-break. Now 4-3 in Indian Wells, he has advanced to the second round in each of his four appearances, beginning in 2021.
The 22-year-old, who sits at No. 93 in the PIF ATP Rankings after falling out of the Top 100 last season, improved to 1-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head with Eubanks. The two are among a tournament-high 15 Americans in the 96-player men's singles main draw, a contingent led by 2022 champion Taylor Fritz.
Next up for Nakashima is a second-round meeting with 32nd seed Jiri Lehecka.
Other early Wednesday winners in Indian Wells include Thanasi Kokkinakis, who beat Marcos Giron 6-3, 7-5, and Christopher O'Connell, who downed Jack Draper 1-6, 6-3, 6-2,
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