Stefanos Tsitsipas extended his win streak to seven matches at the Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3.
The eighth seed Greek, using the slower conditions to his advantage, outplayed Berrettini for the second time in as many weeks. Tsitsipas, who sunk the Italian in the Dubai quarter-finals en route to the title last week, improved to 5-1 in their ATP Head2Head series.
Tsitsipas will surpass Andrey Rublev at No. 7 in the ATP Live Rankings with a fourth-round win. He would return to the Top 5 for the first time since September 2023 with a run to the championship match at the first ATP Masters 1000 of the year.
Tsitsipas next faces 12th seed Holger Rune, who claimed his first Top 20 win on hard court in 12 months when he defeated 18th seed Ugo Humbert 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 after converting four of 10 break chances.
In other match, two-time finalist Daniil Medvedev advanced to the fourth round after Alex Michelsen was forced to retire just 10 minutes into their maiden meeting on Sunday due to illness.
Medvedev took a medical timeout himself to deal with a nosebleed in the second game, but upon resumption at 0-2, Michelsen called the match, ATP reports.
The fifth-seeded Medvedev made an impressive start by defeating Buyunchaokete on Friday for his 200th hard-court win since 2020. The 29-year-old is one victory away from a fourth consecutive ATP Tour quarter-final.
In the fourth round, Medvedev will face 10th seed Tommy Paul, who earlier ousted 2021 champion Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5 to earn his 50th ATP Masters 1000 win. The 27-year-old joined Taylor Fritz as the only active American players to reach this milestone.
Michelsen has also withdrawn from the doubles event, in which he partnered Ben Shelton. The American duo has been replaced by Alexander Erler and Constantin Frantzen.
–IANS
