India’s top ranked men’s singles player Yuki Bhambri continued his dream run at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Sunday when he upset ninth seed Lucas Pouille of France 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
The 25-year-old, who had beaten fellow qualifier Nicolas Mahut in the opening round for his first win at this level, began strong by breaking Pouille in the very first game and raced to a 4-1 lead with another break in the fifth game. Though Bhambri lost his serve in the very next after saving two break points and four deuce in what was definitely the longest game of the set.
But if Pouille thought that it was his chance of fighting back, he was mistaken as Bhambri held the next two service games rather easily to take the opening set.
The second set was a much closer affair but the Indians was once again first to grab the initiative when he broke the Frenchman in the third game, having held his first service game of the set on love.
Pouille struck back by breaking Bhambri in the sixth game to level the scores at 3-3 and took the lead at 4-3, albeit only on serve. However, it was clear that the Indian was putting a lot of pressure on the Frenchman’s serve and it once again cracked in the ninth game.
He saved three break points but Bhambri was relentless and won the game on the fourth and then served out the final game on love to registered one of the biggest upsets of his career in an hour 19 minutes.
Bhambri will now face USA’s Sam Querrey, who defeated Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.