12. 03. 2011. ·
The first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season, BNP Paribas Open ($3,645,000), began on Thursday, March 10, and will be held till March 20.
The best Serbian tennis player and 2008 champion Novak Djokovic is third seed and has a first-round BYE.
He will open his campaign against world no.39 Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan who beat German Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-1.
Novak’s potential opponents in the later stages of the tournament are:
3rd round: Ernests Gulbis (LAT,31), Yen-Hsun Lu (Taiwan)
4th round: Viktor Troicki (SRB,16), Michael Llodra (FRA,24)
Quarter-finals: Andy Roddick (USA,8), Jurgen Melzer (AUT,10), Richard Gasquet (FRA,18), John Isner (USA,30)
Semi-finals: Roger Federer (SUI,2), Tomas Berdych (CZE,7), Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI,12), Mardy Fish (USA,13)…
Rafael Nadal (ESP,1), Robin Soderling (SWE,4), Andy Murray (GBR,5), David Ferrer (ESP,6), Fernando Verdasco (ESP,9)… are in the top half of the draw.
Last year Nole reached fourth round. He lost to eventual champion Ivan Ljubicic 5-7, 3-6.
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Novak’s past results in Indian Wells:
2010 – fourth round (lost to Ljubicic)
2009 – quarter-finals (lost to Roddick)
2008 – title (defeated Fish in the finals)
2007 – finals (lost to Nadal)
2006 – first round (lost to Benneteau)
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Nole and his Davis Cup teammate Viktor Troicki are joining forces in the doubles competition.
They advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Argentine duo Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco.
Djokovic and Troicki will next play against no.7 seeds Lukasz Kubot (POL) and Oliver Marach (AUT).
