Lucas Miedler celebrated his first match success at his first doubles appearance in an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. The Lower Austrian had the seventh-placed Australian Open finalists Hugo Nys (Monaco) and Jan Zielinski (Poland) with the British Cameron Norrie at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells at the start on Thursday with 3: 6, 6: 3 and 10: 6 defeated in match tiebreak. But even without a defeat on the pitch, Miedler’s hardcourt million-euro event in the US state of California ended last night – in a very unfortunate way. Because partner Norrie canceled the doubles round of 16 once morest the Canadian youngsters Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, because of a victory fought following 2:41 hours in the third individual round on the same day (Sunday local time).
For Austria’s double star, the chance of a first quarter-final in a tournament of the highest category following the Grand Slams disappeared into thin air. From a red-white-red point of view, the event in Indian Wells went through this, because in the individual competition Dominic Thiem with a wildcard for the main competition had his opening match once morest Frenchman Adrian Mannarino unluckily 6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 7 despite a clear lead (5) lost. And the Lower Austrian was also eliminated in the first round in doubles: With the Norwegian Casper Ruud he lost to the fourth-seeded Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 3: 6, 3: 6 on Saturday. For Ruud/Thiem there might have been more once morest the Wimbledon winners in 2021 or finalists in 2022 and the reigning Olympic champions. But following being 1:4 behind, they missed the chance to make it 4:4 at the decision point in the eighth game and had to give up their serve once more and this time decisively to make it 3:5. In the second set, the two missed the first two break balls at 3: 2 and finally conceded two breaks via the decision point.
While Thiem now wants to put in a condition block to prepare for the next ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami, Miedler has received good news from there. He will be able to make his flat debut in Florida next week alongside regular partner Alexander Erler. Because, as Miedler revealed to ÖTV on Monday evening, he and the Tyrolean made the hoped-for leap into the doubles main field of the Miami Open presented by Itau. It will be interesting to see how the Acapulco winners will fare at their joint premiere.
Here are all the results of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells.