Daniil Medvedev might not have won the BNP Paribas Open yet, but he is on a strong roll at the tournament in recent years.

A former No. 1 ranked player in the world, Medvedev was a finalist at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2023 and 2024 and reached the semifinals last year. Wednesday he moved one step closer to matching those performances with a 6-2, 6-4 win over American Alex Michelsen on Stadium 2.

Michelsen, ranked 44th in the world, upset seventh-seed Taylor Fritz in the round of 32, but he was never a threat to Medvedev Wednesday. Michelsen fell behind with an early break in the first set and Medvedev cruised to the set victory. In the second set, Medvedev was even stronger with is first serves, finishing with a 78 percent success rate while winning 72 percent of those serves.

With his three wins at Indian Wells this year, Medvedev improves to a 16-3 match record in 2026. That includes a win at the Dubai event, though the finals in that tournament was a walkover against Tallon Griekspoor, who was battling a hamstring injury.

Medvedev will face either Novak Djokovic or Jack Draper on Thursday.

Norrie handles qualifier to reach quarterfinals

It has been five years since Cameron Norrie won the first of his five ATP titles at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open. Wednesday in the round of 16 of the men's draw at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Norrie took a big step toward repeating that 2021 performance.

Seeded just 17th in this year's event, Norrie took out qualifier Rinky Hijikata of Australia 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open for the fourth time in his career. The first time was in 2021 on his way to the title, but Norrie also reached the quarterfinals in 2022 and 2023.

Norrie, from Great Britain, has struggled in 2026, with Indian Wells being the first time he had even reached the round of 16 in an event. With the draw breaking his way and facing qualifier Hijikata Wednesday, Norrie made no mistake in advancing to the quarterfinals, An early break in the first set led Norrie to the win in the first set. In the second set, even at 2-2, Norrie went on a run to win the last four games and close out the match.

While both players struggled at times with their serves, Hijikata opened the door on the match by winning just 28 percent of his second serves, compared to 60 percent for Norrie.

Next up for Norrie is a date with World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Medvedev, Norrie win in straight sets to reach BNP Paribas quarterfinals