Sinner shines in Indian Wells, Murray falls to Rublev

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Jannik Sinner of Italy crushed Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 6-0 to reach the third round of Indian Wells and extend his season record to 13-0 on Friday. Former world number one Andy Murray of UK fell to Russia's Andrey Rublev 7-6(3), 6-1.

The Australian Open champion stayed hot on center court under sunny but breezy skies in the Californian desert, fighting off a break point at 2-2 in the opening set with a forehand winner and breaking serve for a 5-3 advantage. Sinner then lost five points in the second set to book a third-round meeting with either 25th seed Jan-Lennard Struff from Germany or Croatian Borna Coric.

Jannik Sinner gestures to spectators after reaching men's singles third round at BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, U.S., March 8, 2024. /CFP

Despite winning 26 of his past 27 matches, Sinner insisted he is not invincible.

"I'm not unbeatable, I'm just well-prepared," he said.

"I worked really hard to be in this position. Obviously it's a position you dream of because winning a Grand Slam, that's everyone's dream, but you travel here, the conditions are different and then you have to find a way somehow."

Later on Friday, Rublev piled up the errors in the opening set against Murray and was forced to save four set points. But the Russian cleaned up his game and found his range with the forehand to roll through the second set and book a meeting with either American wild card Brandon Nakashima or Czech 32nd seed Jiri Lehecka in the third round.

"He had a lot of chances in the first set and I was lucky to win. Had I lost it, it would have been really, really tough," Rublev said.

"After the first set, I felt more confidence and I knew that it would be even tougher for Andy to keep up his consistency."

(With input from Reuters)