Indian Wells 2024: Gauff, Fritz lead five Americans into fourth round

As the 2024 BNP Paribas Open enters its second week, five American singles stars are still standing on home soil. Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro both advanced to the women's fourth round, while Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul are among the last 16 in the men's draw.

Three of those Americans have Top 10 showdowns to look forward to in Indian Wells: Navarro will meet second seed Aryna Sabalenka for a place in the quarterfinals, while Shelton faces reigning Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner and Fritz takes on seventh seed Holger Rune.

Gauff wins last match as a teenager

Gauff beat Italy's Lucia Bronzetti, 6-2, 7-6(5), on Monday to ensure she would be playing on her 20th birthday this Wednesday. She saved 10 of 11 break points in the match, including nine in her first three service games.

After losing the opening set of her Indian Wells campaign against Clara Burel, Gauff has now won four consecutive sets—including tiebreak wins to close out both of her matches.

"It means a lot to come from the long match in the first [match] and be able to close it in straight sets in the second," said Gauff, who received a bye into the second round to start the tournament. "Hopefully I can keep building on that."

Gauff did her part to set up a showdown with Naomi Osaka in the last 16, but Elise Mertens knocked off the Japanese star. The Belgian will now seek her first win against Gauff, who has beaten her in each of their previous three matchups across three surfaces.

Shelton comes up clutch

After a comeback three-set win against Jakub Mensik in his opening match, Shelton survived a final-set tiebreak to beat Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(5) in a thriller that extended late into the night on Sunday.

“Definitely a crazy match tonight. I heard the curfew was early here in Palm Springs,” Shelton said in his on-court interview. “But you guys showed out tonight, so thanks everyone for staying, I know me and Fran really appreciate it.”

Shelton's next task is to stop Sinner's 17-match winning streak. The Italian has won both events he's entered this season (Australian Open, Rotterdam) and could move ahead of Carlos Alcaraz for world No. 2 by matching or bettering the Spaniard's result in Indian Wells.