Yosuke Watanuki steals the show at Indian Wells with tennis and sportsmanship

New York Times

10-03-2025

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. took center stage. Joao Fonseca's amazing pull ended in disappointment for his fans, the Orange County kids did their region proud and the men's seeds tumbled while the women's held strong.
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It has been a tournament of upsets so far on the men's side at Indian Wells, with Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud all losing their first matches. On the women's side, it's been much calmer.
Thirteen of the top 16 WTA seeds remain as the tournament heads for the fourth round, and where the ATP No. 1 seed, Zverev, made an early exit against Tallon Griekspoor, his women's counterpart Aryna Sabalenka was a straight-sets winner against American McCartney Kessler on Saturday. The No. 2 seed and defending champion, Iga Swiatek, has dropped just four games in her two matches so far.
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The women play best-of-three sets at every event, but for the men perhaps some of the variance in a tournament that has seen 15 of the 32 seeds exit in either their first or second matches comes with the shorter format compared to the Grand Slams. Zverev had come close to defeat against Griekspoor in several of their previous meetings, most recently outlasting him across five sets at least year's French Open. Djokovic, who said the high bounce on the main court at Indian Wells caught him off guard, would have felt more confident surviving a marathon as opposed to a shootout against Botic van de Zandschulp.
Is a format more conducive to upsets better or worse? It depends on perspective, but it makes sense that the Grand Slams would rather keep the longer format and increase their chances of keeping the big names in.
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A recurring debate during tennis' various officiating controversies in the last year has been the extent to which the sport should expect players to fess up to things that umpires miss.
At January's Australian Open for instance, some felt that Swiatek should have admitted to not reaching an Emma Navarro drop shot before the ball bounced twice. Others felt she couldn't have known for sure, and it's not her responsibility to officiate the match.
On Sunday night, albeit in a different incident where there was less uncertainty, Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki offered the kind of sportsmanship against Frances Tiafoe that many fans have said they would like to see.
Tiafoe was serving at deuce, down 2-3, when he was given a time violation for taking too long before serving. Watanuki walked towards umpire Mohamed Lahyani and told him that he hadn't been ready to receive. Lahyani accepted this and canceled the time violation, two of which lead to the server being docked their first serve. That's what happened to Tiafoe at a crucial moment of a match against Roman Safiullin in Shanghai last year, when he swore repeatedly at umpire Jeremy Pinoargote and was fined $120,000 (£92,800) as a result.
Respect 🤝@FTiafoe received a time violation, but it was cancelled after Watanuki told the referee he wasn't ready to return Tiafoe's serve.#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/CT3kAdFktF
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 10, 2025
Watanuki went on to win an action-packed match 6-4, 7-6(6) despite Tiafoe twice serving for the second set. One of those breaks for Watanuki came immediately after he had asked for a Pepsi when struggling for energy down 5-4. The win means that Watanuki, ranked No. 349 after missing most of last year with injury, is the lowest-ranked player in the Indian Wells last 16 since 2004. He is coached by Tiafoe's former coach, one-time world No. 6 Wayne Ferreira.
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For Tiafoe, the defeat extends his difficult start to 2025, a year in which he is yet to win more than one match at a single event. His most memorable contribution to this year's Indian Wells came at the start of the Watanuki match when, after forgetting his rackets for his previous match against Damir Dzumhur, Tiafoe pretended he had done so again, and successfully fooled an initially stunned Lahyani, who then collapsed into laughter.
Almost fooled us 😆@FTiafoe #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/H36kWvKinY
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 10, 2025
Tournament organizers are going to have to adjust to the Joao Fonseca phenomenon, maybe by paying a little less attention to his ranking.
Fonseca, the 18-year-old rising star from Brazil, is the world No. 80, but he's also one of the biggest attractions in the sport. That could get a little awkward, since the world's 80th-best player generally doesn't get the most prestigious court assignments, and won't directly qualify for about half the tournaments on the tour. But if he's the player that thousands of fans buy tickets to see, one argument goes, then there needs to be room for them to see him.
Witness Fonseca's second round match against Jack Draper Saturday. Organizers put the match on Stadium 4, which seats 3,500. Lines to get in stretched into the main plaza of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. They didn't move, but practically no one left. Fans watched from the high bleachers of surrounding courts. They clawed the fences in the corners of the court trying to get a glimpse.
'I have to get used to this,' Fonseca said of the fanfare.
He had played his first match against Jacob Fearnley on the main stadium court, but no seeds were playing that day. That was an easy call. Fonseca's next tournament, the Miami Open, might present some even more difficult ones, because Florida has a big Brazilian population. Itau, a Brazilian finance company is the main sponsor of the tournament.
Should Fonseca get big stadium assignments? At the moment, he is more famous than his ranking or accomplishments might suggest. If he's the player people want to see, then he probably should. Making fans wait on lines that don't move and leave disappointed does no one any good.
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There were high hopes for California boys coming into the tournament, especially the newcomers. Ethan Quinn, Jenson Brooksby, Learner Tien, Tristan Boyer and Alex Michelsen all grew up within driving distance from Indian Wells and came here as children.
Taylor Fritz is still alive, of course. That's expected: he's the world No. 4. The others are out. But Marcos Giron, another California player from Thousand Oaks who went to UCLA is still in, achieving his best run at Indian Wells at 31 years old.
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Giron notched his first top-five win over Casper Ruud on Friday and beat No. 26 seed, Alexei Popyrin, on Sunday to get into the round of 16.
'This place holds a lot of memories and a lot of emotion,' he said.
It was the first tournament he attended and had his first ATP breakthrough here in 2019, winning two matches.
'The last couple years I came here maybe with expectations, maybe yes, maybe no, some pressure, and I didn't play well,' he said. 'Of course there's a lot of family, there's a lot of friends, trying to organize tickets and all that, give everybody the time they deserve.
'This is not something I can do forever. So I know each moment, I've got to make the most of it.'
Michelsen had perhaps the worst luck of his California gang. Things looked troubling early for his opponent, two-time beaten finalist Daniil Medvedev. The Russian called for a medical timeout after just one game in his second match of the tournament. Michelsen, a hometown favorite from nearby Orange County, was going to have the crowd on his side. Medvedev has had trouble putting away players who meet him with energy and without fear.
After his time out, Medvedev headed back to the court. They played another game. He had a 2-0 lead. Then they were shaking hands at the net. A retirement. Surely Medvedev was done, he'd had the medic on.
But it was Michelsen grabbing his bag and walking off the court. He'd taken the court unwell with a stomach issue, having considered not playing at all. A duel against a human backboard like Medvedev in the desert sun was much too much for him to manage.
Weird things can happen in tennis matches. That was about as weird as it gets.
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Alycia Parks saves a match point against Diana Shnaider with a wonderful piece of skill.
🚨 TWEENER WINNER 🚨
ICYMI, shot of the tournament last night from Alycia Parks 👏#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/Aw0OptQLFk
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 9, 2025
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men's and women's tours continue.