2017 Indian Wells Masters: 5 matches to look out for in the third round

#4 Gael Monfils vs John Isner

Gael Monfils’ third round match against John Isner will be expected to be a close contest

Both Gael Monfils and John Isner have reached two ATP quarter-finals in this year’s World Tour so far with Monfils reaching the quarter-finals of the Open 13 and Dubai Tennis Championships and Isner reaching the quarter-finals of the Auckland Open and Memphis Open.

At the Australian Open, Monfils reached the fourth round while Isner was knocked out in the second round. Their third round match at the Indian Wells Masters will be their ninth meeting, with the winner taking the lead in their head-to-head, which is all square at 4-4.

Both players did not have a smooth outing in the second round as the 10^th seeded Monfils came back from a set down to defeat Barbados qualifier, Darian King, while the 20^th seeded Isner defeated Kazakh, Mikhail Kukushkin, in two tiebreak sets. Even though Monfils looks the favourite, you can never write off somebody like Isner who can pull out a trick or two and cause an upset.