Fritz Edges De Minaur To Reach Third Straight ATP Masters 1000 QF

San Diego's Taylor Fritz is back in the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals thanks to a gutsy win in gusty conditions Wednesday in Indian Wells. A semi-finalist five months ago in his home tournament, Fritz was nearly sent packing by road-runner Alex de Minaur but ultimately closed out a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) victory.

It was the American's second straight third-set tie-break win, matching his third-round result against Jaume Munar on Tuesday.

"I'm really not a big fan of playing de Minuar," Fritz said after the match, noting the change in style from the Spaniard, who played from deep in the court with heavy spin. "Now I come out on the court, he's on the baseline hitting everything so flat and low. The first set I really just couldn't time the ball. Going from two extremes, different players, it really was tough for me."

An eventful deciding set saw the pair split four breaks of serve, with both men leading by a break early before de Minaur levelled at 3-all. There were no further breaks from there, and the entire tie-break went the way of the server until Fritz drew an error with a deep backhand to cap a 10-ball exchange on match point.

"In the end I knew what was working for me and just kind of battled through it," Fritz explained.

The two-hour, 23-minute contest featured frequent lung-busting rallies as both baseliners were happy to build points slowly from the backcourt. One such rally, which proved emblematic of the match as a whole, saw Fritz gradually gain the upper hand before tracking back to return a deep lob, narrowly dodging the wind-whipped ball as it fell from the desert sky. The American regained control from there and closed with a backhand winner as he grinded his way to a hold early in the deciding set.

The longest rally of the match was 44 balls, with de Minaur winning a 31-ball exchange to take a 3-2 lead in the decisive tie-break.

The Australian was in control early, dropping just one point on first serve in an opening set he won by a double break. But Fritz began to turn the match around midway through the second. He converted on his first break point of the match to edge in front, 3-2, then threatened in nearly every return game the rest of the way.

De Minaur falls to 0-7 in the Round of 16 at ATP Masters 1000 events, while Fritz advances to his third straight quarter-final at a Masters event (Indian Wells, Paris).

The American will face Miomir Kecmanovic in the quarter-finals, after the unseeded Serb upset Matteo Berrettini, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4.

"He's a really good ball-striker and I think it's going to be a lot of big hitting probably," Fritz previewed, noting Kecmanovic's strong form of late, including a run to the fourth round at the Australian Open.

Also in the draw's bottom half, Grigor Dimitrov defeated John Isner, 6-3, 7-6(6), to reach his 15th ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final and his second in Indian Wells.

The 33rd-seeded Bulgarian, who took Novak Djokovic's place on the draw's bottom line, leveled the pair's ATP Head2Head record at 2-2 with the victory. All four of the veterans' meetings have come at the Masters 1000 level, with their two most recent matches coming in 2017.

The story of the first set was told in two break points. Dimitrov took his in the fourth game, but Isner could not convert in the seventh. There were no break chances in set two, as both men finished the contest with a first-serve win rate of at least 80 per cent.

Dimitrov hit the shot of the match with Isner serving at 3-all in the second, but even his sweetly struck passing shot could not earn him more than a fleeting look against the American's serve

In a match of fine margins, Dimitrov's edge came in the medium and long rallies; in exchanges of five balls or more, he held a decisive 21-13 advantage, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He finished with just six more total points than Isner, winning 66 to the American's 60.

The 30-year-old Bulgarian enjoyed his career-best result at Indian Wells in October, when he beat Reilly Opelka, Daniil Medvedev and Hubert Hurkacz to reach the semis. He'll take on the winner of Hurkacz's Wednesday evening match against Andrey Rublev for the right to repeat that showing.