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March 19, 2019

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Thiem leapfrogs Federer as Andreescu climbs up

Dominic Thiem climbed to a career-best ranking of fourth yesterday after clinching his maiden ATP Masters title with his defeat of Roger Federer at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California.

Austrian Thiem, who was also briefly ranked fourth in the world in late 2017, rose four places after beating Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday to deny the Swiss star a record sixth Indian Wells crown.

Federer, 37, dropped one spot to fifth as the top three remained unchanged with Novak Djokovic ahead of Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev of Germany despite the Serb’s third-round exit in California.

Spaniard Nadal, who pulled out of his semifinal with Federer due to a knee injury, will skip this week’s Miami Masters as he targets a return to competition for the claycourt season.

Juan Martin del Potro dropped three spots to eighth after he was unable to defend his Indian Wells crown because of a knee problem. The Argentine will also miss the Miami event.

Meanwhille, Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu rocketed up 36 places to a new-best of 24th in the WTA rankings a day after her historic triumph at Indian Wells.

Andreescu, 18, beat Germany’s Angelique Kerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in Sunday’s final to become the first women’s wildcard to win the Indian Wells title.

Andreescu, with just one Grand Slam main-draw victory to date, continued her meteoric rise having been ranked 243rd as recently as last October.

Wimbledon champion Kerber moved up four places to fourth as Japan’s Naomi Osaka stayed top despite crashing out in the last 16 in a failed title defense.

Simona Halep, who also lost in the fourth round, slipped from second to third as the Romanian was replaced by Czech Petra Kvitova.

Belinda Bencic continued her resurgence as the 21-year-old Swiss broke back into the top 20 after reaching the Indian Wells semifinals, a run that included a victory over Osaka.




 

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