Andy Murray has crashed out of the tournament, one that he has never won in his career, as he suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the Argentine Frederico Delbonis on Day 5 of the Indian Wells ATP 1000 event on Monday.

The second seeded Scott who lead Brittain last weekend to a win in the first round of the Davis Cup went down 4-6,6-4,6-7(3) to the 53rd ranked Delbonis, who next goes on to meet the Frenchman Gael Monfils. The 13th seed took out the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1,6-3. The other fancied players in the bottom half of the men’s draw advanced, led by the third seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka who has been joined by Tomas Berdych, Milos Raonic, Richard Gasquet, Marin Cilic and David Goffin.

Wawrinka who is the highest ranked Swiss in the draw in the absence of the three time champion Roger Federer was tested briefly by the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov before winning 6-4,7-6(5). He goes on to meet the 15th seeded David Goffin of Belgium who outlasted another Argentine Guido Pella 4-6,6-3,6-2.

Tomas Berdych who had halted the comeback bid of Juan Martin Del Potro on Saturday proved too strong for the Croatian teenager Borna Coric 6-1,7-6(3) and next faces another tricky opponent as he will play Canada’s Milos Raonic who advanced after the Australian Bernard Tomic retired midway through the second set trailing 6-2,3-0.

The final remaining round of 16 in the bottom half features the Frenchman Richard Gasquet who takes on the Croat Marin Cilic. The 10th seeded Cilic who has done little since winning the 2014 U.S. Open title knocked out the last remaining Argentine in the draw Leonardo Mayer 6-4,6-3, while Gasquet rallied from a set down against the Ukrainian Alexander Dolgopolov before prevailing 2-6,6-2,6-1.

The following is the list of round of 32 matches in the top half of the men’s draw with my pick mentioned first:-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Philippe Kohlschreiber (27)
Kei Nishikori (5) v. Steve Johnson (30)
Rafael Nadal (4) v. Fernando Verdasco (30)
John Isner (9) v. Adrianne Mannarino
Dominic Thiem (11) v. Jack Sock (21)
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (7) v. Sam Querrey
Giles Simon(16) v. Alexander Zverev
Roberto Bautista Agut (14) v. Feliciano Lopez (18)

In a rematch of the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne Nadal will try to avenge his shock five set defeat to the seasoned Verdasco, while there will be a lot of local interest as four Americans feature on Day 6 at this 11 day long event, the first Masters Series ATP 1000 event of the year. John Isner, Jack Sock, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson.

Sock faces the promising Austrian Dominic Thiem while another teenager Alexander Zverev of Germany plays the Frenchman Giles Simon in an intriguing line up on Tuesday. The top seeded Djokovic, a four time winner who had a three set opener against the American Bjorn Fratangelo faces an interesting test against the veteran German Philippe Kohlschreiber.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]