Sam Querrey, with a 6-3, 6-4 Round-of-16 victory over Feliciano Lopez, is the last American singles player standing and is the lone player, man or woman, still eligible for the tournament bonus of $1 million for the winner of both the singles and doubles titles.
Querrey, the No. 18 seed, advanced to his first quarterfinal in Indian Wells in 13 tries.
“It’s the best I played so far,” Querrey said. “My first-serve percentage was a little low. But other than that, I did everything really well. Really aggressive. I thought I returned pretty well against the guy. He’s got a tough serve. Happy with that. I’m happy with how I played today. That’s what gives me confidence rather than making the quarterfinals.”
Top-ranked Simona Halep has been working on her on-court temperament, but had a few moments of frustration Wednesday, admitting with a smile that she had her coach, Darren Cahill, visit her chair between the second and third sets “to calm me down.”
Is it just a matter of allowing those moments to pass, she was asked?
“No, things are not coming and going like that,” she said. “It [would be] easy if it was like that. I have to work and I have to just put the thoughts in the right place.”
Halep said getting angry at herself was exhausting.
“Before, I was losing energy a lot to do that, but now I don’t waste energy that much,” she said. “I know what I have to do. I do it, and it turns.”
Tennis fan Will Ferrell joined Jim Courier and Mary Carillo in the Tennis Channel booth at the start of the Roger Federer–Jeremy Chardy fourth-round match, and as expected, all sense of broadcast decorum soon departed.
“Jeremy Chardy is my favorite player,” Ferrell announced. “I have a Jeremy Chardy back tattoo.”
After urging viewers, “Let’s watch the pageantry” of the coin toss, he also had a suggestion for Chardy, who upset then-No. 4 Federer in Rome in 2014.
“In the middle of his toss, just yell out ‘Rome,’” said Ferrell.
In just three matches, American Caroline Dolehide led the women’s field going into the quarterfinal round with 22 aces. Aliaksandra Sasnovich had 15 aces over three matches, but also 31 double faults to lead all players.
Petra Kvitova and Yulia Putintseva have played the longest match of the tournament at three hours, 17 minutes in the second round. Three matches have gone exactly one hour to claim the shortest so far: Amanda Anisimova’s win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round; Marketa Vondrousova’s third-round victory over Aryna Sabalenka; and Sofia Kenin’s 6-2, 6-0 first-round win over Claire Liu.
Marcos Baghdatis, ranked No. 102, was forced to pull out of his Round-of-16 matchup with Canada’s Milos Raonic, citing illness.
“I woke up and felt a bit ill,” said the 32-year-old Cypriot. “I have some stomach issues. I came to have a hit and didn’t feel myself. I didn’t feel well to go out there. I’m really sorry to the fans who wanted to see this match. I’m a bit disappointed myself. I’ve had a great five matches here, passing through the qualifying and getting to the fourth round. Just now I’m very disappointed.”
