Daily Tennis Tips – Thursday March 6

See below for our daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Thursday March 6 at Indian Wells, including the top tips and players to back in our tennis betting markets!

Australian Rinky Hijikata is searching for just his fourth win at ATP 1000 level when he confronts Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko in the Indian Wells Masters’ first round.

World No.83 Hijikata has had a mixed start to the year, making the quarter-finals in Adelaide amongst several first-round exits.

He beat Adrian Mannarino in Dallas last month before losing to Tomas Machac, and he went down convincingly to Yunchaokete Bu in Delray Beach and David Goffin at the Mexican Open in recent weeks.

Fellow 24-year-old Shevchenko, ranked 98th, has fared no better in 2025.

His only main draw win was against Felipe Meligeni Alves at the Rio Open, though he put up a great fight in a 7-6 7-6 loss to Alexander Zverev in the next round. Shevchenko lost 6-2 6-2 to Mariano Navone at last week’s Chile Open.

Shevchenko, the $1.65 favourite here, boasts a very handy 7-2 record in first-round ATP Masters matches.

But with neither player bringing any meaningful formline into this clash, backing the over shapes as the best option.

Nick Kyrgios is attempting yet another ATP comeback at the Indian Wells Masters, with his protected ranking earning him a first-round date with lucky loser Botic Van de Zandschulp.

The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up was an Indian Wells quarter-finalist in 2017 and ’22, but he has not played an ATP 1000 tournament in almost three years.

Kyrgios’ return in January from a long injury layoff consisted of a super-close three-set loss to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Brisbane and a straight-sets defeat to Jacob Fearnley at the Australian Open.

The controversial 29-year-old’s build-up to this event has been clouded by a wrist complaint picked up in practice.

World No.85 Van de Zandschulp got a reprieve after losing a qualifier to Matteo Gigante, which continued an underwhelming season to date for the former top-25 player.

Van de Zandschulp’s 2025 highlight was arguably taking a set off Carlos Alcaraz in Rotterdam. His only main draw win was against Abedallah Shelbayh in Doha, while he lost to Chris O’Connell in Dubai qualifying.

This would otherwise be a reasonable match-up for Kyrgios to find his footing again, but the tempestuous Aussie is so underdone it’s pretty hard to back him with any confidence.

American Alycia Parks has produced some promising recent form ahead of her Indian Wells Masters first-round clash with out-of-sorts world No.33 Anna Kalinskaya.

Kalinskaya won both the pair’s encounters to date, which were both in 2023 – in the first round at Indian Wells (6-1 6-1) and at the Dow Tennis Classic (3-6 7-6 6-3).

Parks, ranked 61st, made the semis in Auckland in January and has carved out impressive wins over Diana Shnaider in Doha and Wang Xinyu in Dubai over the past month.

Kalinskaya bounced from a dismal Australian swing with a semi-final run in Singapore as the top seed, but she exited the Qatar Open and Dubai Championships – where she was the 2024 runner-up – in the first round, to Cristina Bucsa and Elina Svitolina (winning just three games), respectively.

Parks lost in the first round in both of her previous visits to Indian Wells, while this is just her second WTA 1000 event since 2023. But Kalinskaya’s alarmingly poor form makes her ripe for the picking in this one.

Australian veteran Ajla Tomljanovic is aiming to continue her recent form resurgence at the Indian Wells Masters, where she his a $1.53 first-round favourite against American Caty McNally.

The injury-hit Tomljanovic returned from a four-week break at the ATX Open last week, powering into the semi-finals with wins over Katie Volynets, Jodie Burrage and Ena Shibahara, eventually going down to top seed Jessica Pegula in three sets.

The 31-year-old, a three-time slam quarter-finalists, won a qualifier against Julieta Pareja on Tuesday to confirm her main draw berth in a tournament that she reached the fourth round of in 2021.

McNally is only just inside the top 500 after barely playing in the past two years due to injury. Her only match in 2025 was a straight-sets loss to Varvara Gracheva at the Australian Open, subsequently pulling out of a WTA 125k event in Cancun and the ATX Open.

The 23-year-old is also just 3-7 in first-round matches at WTA 1000 level (0-3 at Indian Wells). This shapes as a straightforward assignment for the wily Tomljanovic.