Indian wells

The Weekly Recap: Pro Tennis Around the Globe — Indian Wells Edition

Mar 09, 2025

What happened at Indian Wells this past week? Plenty. Florida Tennis contributor Will Turvey will be there later this week to keep you updated on all the action, but until then let's look at some surprising results that have been making waves early on in the action.

Top Seed Zverev Out in First Round

"Terrible" was the word that was used by Alexander Zverev himself to sum up his first round performance, and unfortunately it's a rather accurate term to describe the way the top seed played in his first round test against a dangerous Tallon Griekspoor. Though Zverev didn't play his best, there's a lot of credit to be handed to the Dutchman who executed a brilliant performance, coming back from a set down and demonstrating nerves of steel when the match boiled down to just a matter of points. Let's walk through this one.

The first set wasn't all that bad from Zverev, he earned a routine break of Griekspoor's serve early on in the first set putting him up 3-2. From there, both players held their serves until Zverev crossed the finish line at 6-4. Almost all of the German's service games in the first set were pretty quick. The 27-year-old utilized his big first serve to grant Griekspoor little opportunities, and in that key game at 2-2 he hit some big groundstrokes to pressure Griekspoor. After that, he didn't have to do much else to win the first set. It felt like a standard warm-up set in his first match---nothing worrying or exciting about it. But in the second set everything changed.

Griekspoor broke Zverev early on in the second, but the experienced German was able to break back when it mattered most at 4-5. From there he held serve to tie the match at 5-5, and broke 6-5. It seemed like Griekspoor had little left to give and the match was about to be over, but after a quick change over the Dutchman sprung back and quickly forced a tiebreak, letting Zverev only win one point during his service game. He carried the momentum into the tie, just barely surviving to earn himself one more set against the top seed. The third set was quite similar to the second in that both men broke each other's serve throughout the set, and found themselves once again in the tiebreak. But similar to the last set, Zverev wasn't able to convert his opportunities and Griekspoor won the biggest match of his lifetime and a spot in the second round.

Djokovic Difficulties Continue with Early Exit

Botic van de Zandschulp has always been a player to watch when he takes on a higher ranked opponent, because there's just something about his game that clicks when put under pressure. Last summer at the US Open the Dutchman took down Carlos Alcaraz, and he continued this trend a few days ago with an upset over Novak Djokovic. The Serbian was looking for redemption after a weak start to the season, but he didn't have an answer for van de Zandschulp who played a brilliant match and secured yet another massive win.

Photo credit: Mauricio Paiz.

The first set was won by van de Zandschulp 6-2, and it seemed like maybe this was going to be a quick one. But if we've learned one lesson from watching Novak Djokovic, it's that he will never give up. There have been countless times where he comes back from the brink of defeat to win the match, and he does so making it look almost effortless. So when he won the second set 6-3, there was a new energy in Stadium One as Djokovic had established himself as a real contender in the match and it might have been a simple comeback to gain some extra hours on court in preparation for the more difficult rounds ahead. But Djokovic isn't a young man anymore, and van de Zandschulp was able to grind a little extra and run the Serbian around the court---making sure he had little left in the tank for the final set. And this payed off as the Dutchman secured the third 6-1.

On his win, he said: "I think I kept my cool during the whole match. The second set was very tough, he gained a big lead. But I think I did well turning it to 5-3 to get the momentum back a little bit. I think I started well, surviving one or two games in the third set, and then broke and turned it around. I know if I go into the match and lose my cool, especially against the big players, it’s going to be a really tough day. That’s always one thing I’m trying to do well.”

Haddad Maia Defeated in Masterclass Performance

Despite being seed 16th, a knowledgable tennis fan would know what a dangerous player Beatriz Haddad Maia is. She is often seen in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the biggest tournaments in the world, including grand slams, and when she has had a good week and warmed up properly---she is almost unbeatable. This was certainly what she hoped to achieve when she arrived in the desert, but her 83rd ranked opponent had other ideas, and essentially destroyed the Brazillian.

Playing against Sonay Kartal, it should have been a comfortable first round win for Haddad Maia but after an early break in the first set for the Brit, it was clear that this would be a bit more difficult that she anticipated. Little did anybody know that Kartal would break Haddad Maia five times to win the match in two extremely comfortable sets, letting the 16th seed only win a total of three games. Kartal served decently hitting 78% of her first serves in and converting 71% of those. When she made an error on the first, her second serve also proved to be very reliable---she also won 78% of points on her second. In addition, Kartal played a beautiful return game to win a total of 22 receiving points which clearly contributed to the five breaks.

There really wasn't much Haddad Maia could do, and the final score was 6-2, 6-1 for Kartal. Earlier in the tournament, the Brit lost in qualifying but was granted the a lucky loser position in the main draw, and it payed off. She said: "I slept pretty badly and when something starts badly, I don’t do couple of things good. I actually moved hotels because I thought I wouldn’t win this. But I practice really well. I was super focused. Today kind a feel different. I was definitely in the zone more than normal today. I think in the second set, that was my mindset to not look at the score. I think like that you play with much more freedom. When you see yourself getting closer to crossing the line, then you starting to get a little too excited and stuff. So that’s all I focused on through the whole match."