Michael Franz

Lots of very interesting first round matches for the ATP draw in this first Masters 1000 of the year in Indian Wells. As all 32 seeds get a first round bye in this format it brings a lot of interesting first round matches between some lower ranked players.

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Dennis Shapovalov

First popcorn match is an absolute blockbuster between Canadian Dennis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Both these players were at one point in their career Top 10. Tsitsipas was at one point in the top 3 getting to 2 major finals one in Australia and one in France for the French and Australian Opens. He has really struggled recently in the past year or so not getting very many match wins under his belt but found some form in Dubai in the past week. On the other hand Shapovalov has once cracked into the Top 10 back in 2020 after making the quarterfinals at the US Open. Shapovalov has had a rough start to the season with losing in the second round of the Australian Open to Marin Cilic in straight sets 6-4 6-3 6-2. Outside of the Dallas Open Shapovalov has lost in the first couple of rounds and struggled a bit. In the Dallas Open going in as the defending champion from 2024, he backed it with another semi-final appearance losing a very tough match against Ben Shelton 7-6 in the final set. Shapovalov leads the head to head 4-2 over Tsitsipas. Shapovalov winning all 4 encounters on hard court and Tsitsipas winning the 2 on the clay. Winner of this match will play 29 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Reilly Opelka vs Ethan Quinn

As this is a tournament in the US another blockbuster match is between Reilly Opelka and Ethan Quinn. Both guys have had their peaks at very different times with Opelka being on the older side with him being ranked 64 and being 28 years-old. Opelka is 3-3 so far this season so no long runs for him so far after losing a tough 5-setter against the 14 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round of the Australian Open 3-6 6-7(3) 7-5 6-4 4-6. Ethan Quinn had a nice run at the Australian Open making it into the third round beating a couple of very good players in Griekspoor and Hurkacz both in straight sets. Then ran into a very in form Jakub Mensik in the third round losing in straights 6-2 7-6(5) 7-6(5). This will be these Americans first time meeting each other on the ATP level with Quinn just emerging on the scene. The winner of this match will be slated for another blockbuster match against the number 8 seed American Ben Shelton.

Matteo Berrettini vs Adrian Mannarino

Finally another blockbuster first round match on the Men's side being between Italian Matteo Berrettini and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. Both of these guys being a bit older with Mannarino being 37 and nearing the end of his career having a very rough 2025 but bouncing back very well in 2026 it has been very nice to see. He had a very good tournament earlier this year in the Open Occitanie making it to the final of that and losing in a tough 2 setter against Top 10 opponent Felix Auger-Aliassime. Adding on some good wins on his way to the final going through star power lefty Ugo Humbert in a tough 3 setter. Berrettini has been working through injuries for the past couple of years trying to get back to his best form with Berrettini having some very good form back in 2022 when he reached his career high of world number 6. Mannarino has won both of the times that these guys have played with the most recent being in Shanghai of 2025 with Mannarino winning a tough 2-set match winning 7-5 7-6(5). Back in 2018 was the previous time that these two met and it was in the Australian Open first round with Mannarino getting the better of Matteo winning 6-4 6-4 6-4.