American Marcos Giron gathered past No. 26 Seed Alexei Popyrin in Australia 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 Sunday to move on to the fourth round of the GDP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.
Giron’s victory came one round after he upset No. 4 Frö Casper Ruud by Norway. The native of California is proud to play as well as he is at home.
“There are many families, there are many friends who try to organize tickets and all this, give all the time they deserve is fantastic and it is special,” Giron told reporters. “This is not something I can do forever. So I know every kind of moment is that I have to make the best of it. But I’m here for the tournament, for the job and I love it. I want to perform.”
Giron, 31, finally broke through his first ATP title in July last year in Newport, RI on Sunday, he saved a remarkable 14 of 15 break points to overcome Popyrin, which had an advantage of 31-25 in winners and a fewer unthinkable errors.
Even Sunday, No. 10 Seed Tommy Paul made sure another American man would reach the round of 16 when he swept the UK Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5. It was Paul’s 50th career match at ATP Masters 1000 level.
No. 8 Seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece needed only 68 minutes to beat Italian 28th seed Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3.
At the same time, no. 12 Seed Holger Rune from Denmark Giron’s fight from a set when he defeated no. 18 Ugo Humbert in France 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 35 minutes.
Rune saved 7 out of 10 break points and beat 5-4 in the third set before he easily won the last three games. Rune and Tsitsipas will meet in the fourth round.
“Nothing was easy today on my part,” Rune said. “I dug deeply and found solutions. The time was not there in the beginning but I think my mentality is what got me today.”
No. 5 Seed Daniil Medvedev from Russia led 2-0 when the American 31st seed Alex Michelsen retired 10 minutes into the match due to illness. Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands upset no.
Two more matches were set for Sunday evening: No. 15 Frö Lorenzo Musetti from Italy against No. 20 Frö Arthur Files from France and No. 16 Seed Frances Tiefoe against Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki.
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