Americans Young, Sock and Johnson Headline Sunday Upsets at Indian Wells

Sunday’s matches in Indian Wells, Calif. featured a number of different Americans in action on both sides of the draw, with some of the men pulling off upsets and advancing to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Donald Young, who has played some of the best tennis of his career thus far in 2015, cruised past 31st-seeded Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2 to advance. Young notched a key break while up 3-2 in the second set and with momentum on his side, rattled off the final two games behind the American crowd.

“It’s like another person on your side helping you when you get down,” said Young of the crowd. “Or it’s another person on the other guy’s back as well, because they kind of stay on you, and it’s tough to get them off.”

Chardy committed a number of unforced errors in those final games to let Young run away in the final set.

The 47th-ranked American will take on third-seeded Rafael Nadal in the third round. Nadal has looked sharp in his last few tournaments and continued that play Sunday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands.

“He’s an aggressive player. I think I played well. I think I played a solid match to be the first match,” said Nadal after the win. “I played with not many mistakes, winning a good percentage of points with my serve. One very important thing for me are the movements, and I think I moved myself a little bit quicker tonight than what I was doing one month ago.”

Nadal saved the only break point he faced, and notched three of his own as he rolled in one hour and 12 minutes.

“I think [Young] improved a lot the last couple of years,” said Nadal of his next opponent. “He’s playing very well, winning a lot of matches. Could be a very tough opponent for me. After tomorrow, I hope to be ready for it.”

Steve Johnson also made his way into the BNP Paribas third round, defeating 21st-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(5). Johnson took on 18 aces from the big-serving Karlovic, but featured a powerful serve of his own as he did not allow a single break chance all match.

Johnson will meet the ninth-seeded Tomas Berdych at the next stage. The Czech moved past Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-1, 6-4 in just a little over an hour.

Playing in his first tournament of the season, Jack Sock battled back from a set down and even saved a match point to oust 33rd-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(7), to advance to the third-round. Sock fired 12 aces and ripped 38 winners.

“I feel good,” Sock said after the match. “I said before the tournament this is probably the best I’ve felt physically and mentally, having the time off and being able to put in almost eight or nine weeks training, I think it’s shown out there.”

The American will look to build on this win when he plays 15th-seeded Roberto Bautista-Agut who ousted Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday.