Pressure for Coco Gauff at home, and on serve | Day 3 Previews

Before each day's play at Indian Wells, we'll preview three must-stream matches—which you can do, live and on demand, on the Tennis Channel app. Click here to subscribe.

Alexander Zverev vs. Matteo Berrettini

“I like to play golf here,” Zverev told the ATP this week in Indian Wells. “Historically I didn’t like to play tennis here.”

That aversion to the desert has shown up in his results. He’s 13-9 at this event, a pedestrian record for a Top 5 player, and he’s never made a semifinal. Maybe a native of Hamburg, in Germany’s far north, just isn’t meant to thrive in the bright and breezy conditions in this part of Southern California.

“But that could change,” Zverev added. He says he’s happy with his start to the season, especially at the Australian Open, where he nearly made the final. Even his early loss in Acapulco last week wasn’t a cause for concern, he claimed, because of the way he played. So far this year Zverev says he has committed to a more aggressive style, come what may at the smaller tournaments.

“Take more risks, maybe take some losses like in Acapulco along the way, but play the right way,” he said.

Looking at his last two matches against Berrettini, doing something new makes sense. While the German leads their head-to-head 4-3, the Italian beat him at Wimbledon in 2023, and in Monte Carlo, 7-5 in the third set, in 2025.

The problem for Berrettini is that the last time we saw him, he was lying on the court, cramping and unable to get up for six minutes, after his nearly three-hour win over Adrian Mannarino on Wednesday evening. Will he be ready to go again at 11:00 A.M. in Stadium 1 on Friday?

If so, he’ll be a good test of Zverev’s new risk-taking ways. Berrettini smacked 26 forehand winners and was 12 for 12 at net against Mannarino. Zverev may need all the extra aggression he can muster to counter that. Winner: Zverev

Coco Gauff vs. Kamilla Rakhimova

Coco returns to home soil for the first time in 2026. She sounds pleased by the prospect.

“The weather is great as usual, so I’m excited to go out there and play.”

She says she was inspired watching the U.S. athletes at the Olympics. Maybe more important, she improved on her recent February performances by reaching the semifinals in Dubai. That tournament has recently been elevated to a 1000, but Gauff says she still thinks of Indian Wells as the first event of the year of that stature.

Read More: Coco Gauff: "I could highly relate" to Alysa Liu's road to Olympic triumph

In other words, the pressure to perform, at home, ramps up this week. Gauff, of course, will feel that pressure first and foremost on her serve. She hasn’t solved all of her problems with that shot, but it also hasn’t torpedoed her efforts, the way it did at times last year.

Seeing the 88th-ranked Rakhimova across the net, Gauff may feel like she’s starting the year all over. She also played her in the first round at the Australian Open in January, and beat her 6-2, 6-3. The (slight) difference this time is that the Russian has won two qualifying matches and survived a three-set opener with Bianca Andreescu.

Still, Gauff leads her 2-0, and is 11-5 at Indian Wells. She seems due to improve that record with a deep run here. Winner: Gauff

Ben Shelton vs. Reilly Opelka

Shelton has gone a little farther each time he has played in Indian Wells—from the second round in 2023, to the fourth round in 2024, to the quarterfinals in 2025. Last year he lost to eventual champ and fellow lefty Jack Draper.

This time Shelton may already be thinking about the quarterfinals—he’s scheduled to face his nemesis, Jannik Sinner, in that round. Shelton lost to the Italian in the quarters at Wimbledon last year, and the Australian Open this year. After his title run in Dallas last month, though, Ben may feel like he’s due for a breakthrough.

“It gives you a lot of confidence as a competitor when you’re getting through the tough ones and coming up in the clutch moments,” he said of his performance in Dallas, where he saved match points against Taylor Fritz in the final. “I played my best tennis when my back was against the wall, so I take a lot of confidence from that.”

Before he gets to Sinner, though, Shelton may need to win his share of clutch points against Opelka. A servebot and quintessential “guy nobody wants to face,” Opelka’s ability to hold serve almost at will makes every half chance you get that much more pressure-packed.

Opelka is ranked 68th, 60 spots below Shelton. But that won’t mean much when the 6’11 American is throwing down two aces every game. Shelton is 2-0 against his countryman, but one of those matches went to a pair of tiebreakers, and other ended 7-5 in the third.

Shelton has done a lot of work on his return, and is rightfully proud of the results. He’ll need as many of them as he can get on Friday. Winner: Shelton