Grigor Dimitrov advances to meet Carlos Alcaraz in Indian Wells

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov battled for a three-set win over France's Terence Atmane on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., earning a second-round matchup against top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz.

Dimitrov prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the rematch of an opening-round contest last week at Acapulco, Mexico, where Atmane prevailed.

"I think I started the match really well but it was just difficult to maintain a solid level," Dimitrov said. "I knew that I would get a few chances at some point, so I was just holding onto those moments. It could have gone either way, but I was able to stay very strong in the most important moments."

Now Dimitrov gets a shot at Alcaraz, who holds a 4-2 career edge against him. Last year, the Spanish star downed Dimitrov 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 16 at Indian Wells.

Asked about going against Alcaraz, the 2023 and 2024 Indian Wells champ, Dimitrov said, "I'm always looking on my side of the net. At this point in my career, I'm almost always going to look at my side of the net and what I want to do. If I win, great. If I lose, great again. This is the mindset that I want to adopt a lot more."

In other Thursday action, U.S. qualifier Mackenzie McDonald needed just 62 minutes to demolish Matteo Arnaldi 6-0, 6-1. The Italian won just 38.2% of his service points (13 of 34).

Qualifier Benjamin Bonzi won an all-French matchup against Valentin Royer 6-4, 6-3, and Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut pulled out a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 victory over Hungary's Fabian Marozsan.

U.S. players Sebastian Korda, Aleksandar Kovacevic and Alex Michelsen all registered straight-set wins.

Also advancing to the second round were Argentina's Sebastian Baez and Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Portugal's Nuno Borges, Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley, Poland's Kamil Majchrzak, Kazakhstan's Alexander Shevchenko and Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata.

In the last match of the night, Columbia University senior Michael Zheng, a wild-card entrant ranked No. 145 in the world, fell 7-6 (1), 7-5 to Czech Republic's Vit Kopriva, a lucky loser from qualifying.

--Field Level Media