INDIAN WELLS: Lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp advanced to face five-time Indian Wells champion Novak Djokovic on Thursday as first-round foe Nick Kyrgios was forced out of his latest comeback event with a right wrist injury.

A distraught Kyrgios trailed 7-6 (9-7), 3-0 when he called a halt after consulting the trainer.

The mercurial Australian, last seen grimacing from an abdominal injury and firing expletives at his coaching box as he fell in the first round at the Australian Open, was playing on a protected ranking after missing 18 months following knee surgery and wrist reconstruction.

“It’s always hard to see someone walk off court like that,” van de Zandschulp said. “But especially Nick. His previous year, couple of years, have been tough ... [it’s] tough to see someone hurting like this.”

Kyrgios had displayed some of his crowd-pleasing best in the opening set, keeping one rally alive with two between-the-legs shots.

Down two breaks he rallied to force the tiebreaker, but after saving one set point he failed to convert one of his own before van de Zandschulp pocketed the set.

“It’s never easy to play someone like him,” van de Zandschulp said. “You never know what to expect. Had to be sharp every point.” Kyrgios, who hasn’t won an ATP match since 2022, was clearly hurting in the second set, flexing his hand and staring at his wrist between points.

After withdrawing, he sat with his head in his hands before walking dejectedly off the court.

Van de Zandschulp, ranked 85th in the world, will now get a chance to add another big name to his victims list.

The Dutch 29-year-old toppled Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open last year and beat Rafael Nadal in Davis Cup play in what proved to be the last match of the Spaniard’s career. He’s played Djokovic once before and lost.

“What I remember from the last match is I actually played pretty good -- lost 6-3, 6-1,” he said.

Earlier, Brazilian teen sensation Joao Fonseca rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Britain’s Jacob Fearnley 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

The 18-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, who became the 10th-youngest ATP Tour champion in history when he triumphed at the Argentina Open last month, kept his cool on a blustery day in the California desert, winning the last five games to clinch the match.

In women’s first-round action, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic eased past Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-1, 6-1 in just 65 minutes.

Bencic, the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist in 2021, captured the title in Abu Dhabi in February, her first trophy since she returned from maternity leave during which she gave birth to daughter Bella last April.

The 27-year-old, already ahead of schedule in her comeback, said coping with the conditions was key to the match.

“Obviously today the main topic was the wind, trying to accept it and not trying to make it pretty — just staying in the rallies, trying to be more smart rather than playing amazing shots.”

Indian Wells newcomer Moyuka Uchijima of Japan cruised past former US Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-3, 6-2 to set up a second-round meeting with world number three Coco Gauff.

Britain’s Raducanu was back in action for the first time since she was targeted by a stalker in a troubling incident in Dubai last month.

“I didn’t have what happened in Dubai in my head at all today,” Raducanu said, adding that it was Uchijima’s game that was the problem.

“It was a lot of balls that were, very, very spinny on these courts in the day and in the wind,” she said. “So [the ball] was just jumping up a lot, and then kind of short, almost like mishits, and then deep, spinny and then flat.

“So I didn’t really know what was coming.”

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2025