Seventh-seed Holger Rune of Denmark will lock horns with 12^th seed  Taylor Fritz of the United States in the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters on Wednesday night. 

The winner of this match will face either fourth-seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia or 13^th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the quarter-finals. 

The American leads 1-0 in their head-to-head. Taylor Fritz earned a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Holger Rune in the Miami Masters last year. 

The top-ranked American produced solid performances in either of his previous encounters against Top 10 players this season. The American defeated Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open (in four sets) and also put up a strong showing against Novak Djokovic in the same tournament just two days later.

Taylor Fritz won his first title in 2024 without dropping a set at the Delray Beach Open, despite facing in-form players like Marcos Giron (semi-final) and Tommy Paul in the final.

After he successfully defended his title at the Delray Beach Open in February, Fritz traveled to Acapulco where he surprisingly lost to Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the first round. 

The 26-year-old Californian returned to Indian Wells - where he won his maiden Masters 1000 title two years ago, from his first attempt. Fritz would now fancy his chances of winning another Masters 1000 competition, especially following Novak Djokovic's shock exit and with top favorites Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both in the other half of the draw. 

Taylor Fritz maintained his perfect record on home soil this year by defeating two of the South Americans who recently did well during the clay-court swing. He started his Indian Wells Masters campaign with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Alejandro Tabilo of Chile in the second round before a dominating 6-2, 6-2 third-round victory over 19^th-seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina - the reigning ATP Rio de Janeiro and Santiago champion.

At the end of August 2023, Holger Rune announced his split with coach Patrick Mouratoglou and in October, he hired Boris Becker for the remainder of the season. However, in February it was revealed that Becker has other responsibilities and would cease his work with the Danish talent.

Less than three weeks later, Rune announced that he would reunite with Mouratoglou. 

Meanwhile, bidding to reach his second ATP final of the year, Rune was forced to retire (due to right arm injury) in the second set of his semi-final clash against Borna Coric at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier last month. 

However, Rune was able to quickly resume normal activity and he competed at the Rotterdam Open later in February where he beat Roman Safiullin of Russia in the first round but then lost to Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan in the second match (both were in three sets). 

The young Dane was the second-seed at the Mexican Open in Acapulco, his warm-up event before the Sunshine Double, where he lost to Norway's Casper Ruud in the semi-finals. Still, Rune picked up some momentum with straight-set victories over Michael Mmoh and Aleksandar Kovacevic (both of the United States) and Dominik Koepfer of Germany. 

Holger Rune kicked-off his Indian Wells campaign with a second-round bye. He had to face Canadian veteran Milos Raonic, who was forced to withdraw due to a calf strain. 

The World No. 7 continued with his first real challenge at the Indian Wells Masters. It came in the third round when he faced 26^th-seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. 

The Dane enjoyed a comfortable 6-2 win in the opening set against Musetti but his opponent did much better in the second, when the Italian had two serves at 5-4 in the tiebreaker. However, Rune won the subsequent three points to reach the fourth round in Indian Wells for the first time. 

Should Rune successfully elevate his own game and perform to the best of his ability, he might have a chance to upset Fritz. The American is not an easy player to beat, especially at home, but his inconsistent form over the past months makes the game more unpredictable than it would've been some months ago. 

Yet, Fritz once again showcased his winning ability and considering Rune's poor record against Top 15 players of late, the American should build on his strong home form.