The four-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, Daniil Medvedev secured a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win over Ilya Ivashka, scoring his 16th straight victory to advance to the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters.
Sunday's win is Medvedev's best Indian Wells result from 2021. He finished with eight aces and six double faults to enter the round-of-16, where he will meet Alexander Zverev.
Medvedev broke the opening game of a straightforward first set. He broke again to open the second set, only for Ivashka to break back from 40/15 to spark a run of eight straight points and flip the feeling on the stadium court.
Strong serving kept Medvedev in the set, but Ivashka was on top in the many long rallies as his opponent grew frustrated with what he felt were slow conditions in the desert night. A loose service game handed a break to Ivashka, who served out the set to love to force a decider.
Medvedev rediscovered the form in the final set and raced to a 5-0 lead, locking in from the baseline to blunt Ivashka's power game, and served out the win after Ivashka avoided a bagel with a 0/40 escape, completing the job on his fifth match point.
The matchup against Zverev, the pair's first ATP Head-to-Head meeting since Zverev's victory in the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals, will break a 6-6 tie in the series. "I think our match could be a lot of rallies.
Let's see. It's going to be interesting," Medvedev said on Zeverev's face-off. "I feel like he's playing better and better, which is normal after a tough injury. He's someone who was one of the best players on Tour, going kind of close to World No. 1, started playing better and better in Grand Slams.
"His injury was unfortunate but I'm sure he's going to come back. Hopefully next match I can be the winner and I can play some good tennis."