Indian Wells Masters (Quals) - Mar 12-22 Season I
Indian Wells Masters
Qualifiers - Indian Wells
Draw - Sections 1, 2 and 3
Out of the four CWLanders attempting to qualify for the first part of the ATP Masters Series in Indian Wells, two managed to secure places in the main draw in an eventful couple of days in California.
Billy Spleen and
Rob Bowenburg were successful in their attempts to join a strong field in the main draw. Bowenburg overcame South African
Adam May (6-0 7-5) and local wildcard
Waylon Jones (6-4 6-3) to convincingly make it through qualifying without losing a set. It was tougher for Spleen who, after winning in straight sets against
Alex Rojas in the first round, edged a three-set slog against 24th seed
Robert Isaacs.
The unfortunate casualties for CWLand were
Jarkko Maxum and, somewhat surprisingly, ninth seed
Spas Delev. In his first round clash, Maxum found himself up against the very talented Belgian youngster
Yves Parmentier who accounted for his inexperienced opponent with little trouble en route to a spot in the main draw. Delev also fell in qualifying and will be understandably frustrated with his performance - the world number 106 losing to little known Italian
Massimo Prodi despite winning the first set 6-0.
Qualifiers: 1-Eric Henson (USA); 2-Zbiginiew Boniek (AUT); 3-Rob Bowenburg (CWL); 4-Billy Spleen (CWL); Yevgeny Pushkov (RUS); 6-Akihiko Veno (JPN); 7-Boris Denisov (RUS); 18-Adem Tadić (CRO); Massimo Prodi (ITA); 20-Yves Parmentier (BEL); 23-Sipko Wetzel (NED); Ming-Wang Li (CHN)
Wildcards: Waylond Jones (USA); Julian Day (USA); Samuel Lazzeri (USA); Dean Delgado (USA); Justin Williamson (USA).
First matches in main draw:
Rob Bowenburg (Q) vs. Jimmy Holland (WC) (103)
Jojo Mustard vs. Valter Cordiero (49)
Roy Daniels vs. Morton Blundell (63)
Jamee Hancianu vs. Massimo Prodi (WC) (197)
Heath Davis vs. Ivan Cesljar (50)
Billy Spleen (Q) vs. Vladimir Gryzlov (68)
Randy Smeltz vs. Pascal Schmidt (57)
Second round clashes for those with byes to start:
12-Sven Oxenstierna vs. Aksu Emrem (81) / Pat Hewitt (61)
14-Jefferson Drake vs. Almen Benaglio (60) / Matthew Tobin (75)
22- Brett Read vs. Haiku Morkel (47) / Dimitris Chasiotis (69)