March 12, 2022 - Petra Martić is in the 3rd round of the WTA tournament in Indian Wells, while Borna Ćorić was knocked out in his first match back in 369 days. 

Croatian tennis player Petra Martić advanced to the 3rd round of the WTA tournament in Indian Wells, defeating Slovenian Tamara Zidanšek 7-5, 7-6 (8) in two hours of play.

Martić (WTA-79) knocked out the 22nd player in the world and the 19th-seed of the tournament in two close and dramatic sets. Petra could have won earlier because she led 5-3 in the second set and served 5-4 for the match.

Petra also missed two match points in the tie-break but used the third for the round of 32 of this prestigious tournament. In the first set, Martić came back from 1-3, and in the 12th game, she used only the fourth set point. 

Petra took advantage of 4/10 break points and had only one ace. This was their third clash and the third victory for the Croatian player, who will meet British tennis player Emma Raducanu in the 3rd round. Raducanu topped French tennis player Carolina Garcia in the round of 64. 

Ana Konjuh said an early goodbye to the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. The current best Croatian female tennis player handed over the first-round match to the British qualifier Harriet Dart (122nd on the WTA list), 6:1 and was 3:1 behind in the second set.

Darija Jurak also finished her performance at Indian Wells. She and Slovenian Andreja Klepač (4th seed) lost in the first round to Taipei's Hao-Ching Chan and Poland's Magda Linette (6:3, 2:6, 12:10) after missing the match point at a 9-8 lead in the tie-break.

Borna Ćorić lost in his comeback match in Indian Wells.

Borna Ćorić failed to win his first match after a 369-day break. The 25-year-old from Zagreb was defeated in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells by Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 45th on the ATP list - 6:7 (5), 6:0, 7:5.

Borna had an excellent opportunity to succeed in the match - in the eighth game of the deciding set, he was the first to reach the break and, at 5:3, served to advance to the second round. However, the Spaniard remained strong enough and got the victory by the end of the duel with two breaks.

Ćorić scored seven aces during the match with a first-serve percentage of 66 percent, and he used three of the seven break points.

Ćorić will have a new opportunity to return to the top of the world at the end of March at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.

Croatia will also be without representatives in the second round of the doubles competition in Indian Wells. 

Nikola Mektić and Mato Pavić were defeated by the Americans John Isner and Jack Sock in the first round (7:6 (2), 3:6, 10:7), and Ivan Dodig and Brazilian Marcelo Melo were stopped by the winners of the Australian Open, Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios - 7:5, 1:6, 10:2.

Petra Martić and American Shelby Rogers were defeated by Greek Maria Sakkari and Ajla Tomljanović in the women's doubles - 4:6, 6:4, 10:2.

Source: HTS

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

A fantastic success of Nikola Mektić in Indian Wells! The Zagreb tennis player and his Argentinian doubles partner Horacio Zeballos are the winners of this year's Masters 1000 Series Tournament in Indian Wells. The duo celebrated in the final against Polish player Lukasz Kubot and Brazilian Marcelo Melo - 4:6, 6:4, 10:3, reports HTS on March 17, 2019. 

That feeling of winning an #ATPMasters1000 title! @NMektic @HoracioZeballos | #BNPP19

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) March 17, 2019

After losing the first set, Mektić and Zeballos did not face a break until the end of the match, and once they took their opponents service in the 10th game, they equalized in sets. 

In the decisive tie-break, they started with an advantage of 5:1 and pulled through until the end of the match. 

Nikola has thus claimed his sixth career title (in 11 finals), and second in the Masters 1000 Series tournaments after Madrid last year, which he won with Austrian partner Alexander Pey.

The success of Mektić and Zeballos is even more significant because this is only the second tournament the duo has played together. Recall, on their way to the triumph they had a challenging draw and even had to overcome the best doubles team in the world! In the 2nd round of the tournament, they also saved two match points against French duo Herbert and Mahout.

“I cannot believe that we won Indian Wells. After the winning point, we looked at each other in disbelief, as if this is at all possible. Now we know that we can get everyone as a doubles team,” said the Zagreb native. 

As winners, Mektić and Zeballos added 1000 points to their ranking and have won a $457,000 cash prize. Mektić also became the first Croatian to claim the title in the Californian desert after Ivan Ljubičić defeated Andy Roddick in the final in 2010 to become the first Croat ever to win Indian Wells. 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

Just 92 minutes were needed for 40-year-old Ivo Karlović to overcome Borna Ćorić 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the second round of the Masters 1000 Series tournament in Indian Wells, reports HRT on March 9, 2019. 

It was Karlović’s third win in the same number of official matches against his fellow countryman and rival 18 years his junior. While the first two duels could still be attributed to Ćorić’s lack of experience, as they happened in 2015 and 2016, the defeat at Indian Wells, where Borna was the 11th-seed of the tournament, is indeed an indication that Karlović has a game for his younger compatriot.

Since Jimmy Connors in the 1995 tournament in Halle, no 40-year-old has managed to combine two victories on the ATP Tour. How Karlović beat Ćorić gives him the right to have something to hope for in the next round, where Indian tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran will be on the other side of the net.

In the first set, Karlović missed two chances to break before making the third break in the tenth game and thus won the first set of the match. In the second set, Ćorić went on to take over Karlović’s service, but he lost the acquired advantage in the next game. There was no new chance to break in the second set until the 13th game. Karlović again prevailed and left Ćorić with only two points.

"Dr. Ivo" had 20 aces in this duel but won the match thanks to the excellent realization of points against Ćorić's first service. Namely, Borna won only 58% of the points after the first service, and 76% after the second, which is a very unusual statistic.

As last year's semi-finalist in Indian Wells, Ćorić threatens to lose a few places on the ATP rankings, and Karlović, entering the 3rd round, pushes him to the top 80 in the world.

On Sunday, around 9:30 pm Central European time, Marin Čilić will play his second-round game. The 10th-seed at the start of the tournament awaits Serbian tennis player Dušan Lajovic, who is 45th on the ATP ranking. Čilić leads 2-0 in mutual duels.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

In this season’s first Masters 1000 series tournament in Indian Wells, 40-year-old Ivo Karlović secured his first win by knocking out 31-year-old Australian player Matthew Ebden (ATP-49) with a score of 7-6 (3) 7-6 (3) after one hour and 49 minutes of play. In the second round of the tournament, Karlović will play against the 11th-seed and fellow countryman, Borna Ćorić, reports 24 Sata on March 8, 2019. 

Karlović came to the victory in a unique way, through two tiebreaks in which he was superior, and in the second set, he managed to compensate for the loss of one service.

Karlović saved all three breaks in the first set and missed one - and at the start of the second set, in the second game, Ebden managed to pull 0-40 to prevent the Croatian veteran from reaching a more significant advantage. The Australian managed to get out of his crisis, and in the fifth game, had a break that he kept until the moment when his service was supposed to secure the second set. Though that match point never came. 

With a tiebreak Karlović was once again prevailed, just like in the first, and reached his first win in Indian Wells after 2014, ending a series of four consecutive defeats at the BNP Paribas Open where his best result was the quarterfinal in 2011. Karlović managed his second win over Ebden and now equalizes the Australian in mutual duels (2-2).

Both players took advantage of one of five breaks, though Karlović had significantly better use of the first service than the Australian.

His next rival is last year's semifinalist in Indian Wells and fellow countryman, 22-year-old Borna Ćorić. Ćorić currently leads 2-0 head-to-head with Karlović, though those games were played in 2015 and 2016 in Bucharest and Wimbledon when Ćorić was not entirely on the same qualitative level as he is today, even though he had already been named one of the highest hopes of world tennis.

Borna comes to Indian Wells off of a great result from the ATP tournament in Dubai, where he lost in the semifinal to the legendary Roger Federer 2-0 (6-2, 6-2).

Karlović and Ćorić will play their match on Saturday night in California, or Sunday morning Central European time. 

Marin Čilić is also competing in this tournament, where he will play Serbian player Dušan Lajović in the second round on Sunday. 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

"Do you know who Marin Čilić is?"

Borna Ćorić managed to place in the semifinal of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells!

Croatian tennis player Petra Martić failed to advance to the semifinal of the so-called 'fifth Grand Slam tournament' of the season, Indian Wells, after losing in the quarterfinals to the world’s best female tennis player Simona Halep 4-6, 7-6 (5), 3-6.

Petra Martić has advanced to the quarterfinal of the prestigious WTA tournament in Indian Wells after yet another impressive victory. 

For the first time in his career, Borna Ćorić has managed to advance past the third round of Indian Wells. 

Petra Martić and Marin Čilić convincedly celebrated in 3rd and 2nd rounds of Indian Wells.