The tournament has been a difficult one for the Tennis Picks, but there may be some late momentum that can be carried through to the end of the weekend.
Both selections on Wednesday returned as winners and it may have been better if Katerina Siniakova had been able to complete her Fourth Round match, although she did look spent a couple of days earlier and perhaps did well to manage nine games before withdrawing.
The schedule for the rest of the tournament means all of the Quarter Final matches are set to be played on Thursday.
That will be followed by the WTA Semi Finals on Friday, the ATP Semi Finals on Saturday and both Singles Finals concluding the tournament on Sunday.
It is not the usual ending to these joint Masters events, but the organisers clearly feel that works best and that means an extremely busy Thursday with some of those Quarter Final matches only put together in the Evening Session on Wednesday in the Californian desert.
Four Picks have been made and those can be seen below, while the updated totals for the Indian Wells tournament have also been added.
Jannik Sinner - 5.5 games v Learner Tien: There will be plenty of support for young American Learner Tien in this Indian Wells Quarter Final and an upset in this Round will almost certainly mean cracking the top 20 of the World Rankings for the first time.
Regardless of the result, Learner Tien is set for a new career high World Ranking mark on Monday morning after coming through some very tight matches in each of the previous three Rounds. He has had to spend a considerable amount of court to come through in back to back three setters, but all of this will give the young player a lot of confidence to take into the rest of the season.
Learner Tien has already beaten two players Ranked inside the top 20 so this is not a match that should keep him up at night, although the American will be aware of the size of the task in front of him
Joao Fonseca and a heckler were not enough to put Jannik Sinner off in his own Fourth Round win and the World Number 2 will be very happy with his performance on the court.
He met a younger opponent playing close to his best, but Jannik Sinner was able to keep himself focused and ended up winning the match turning points.
In this Quarter Final, Sinner will know he is going to have more control of the rallies than he was awarded by Joao Fonseca and that always makes players feel more comfortable about what they can produce on the court. Big hitting was taking the racquet out of Sinner's hands in the last Round, but that is not expected to be the case in the Quarter Final, much like when the players met on the hard courts of Beijing in October in a Final that was dominated by the higher Ranked player.
You will expect Learner Tien to have used that match to make adjustments as to how he would prepare and challenge the best players on the court, but he will need to have replenished his energy levels.
The lefty serve can be a little awkward for opponent's to read and Learner Tien is going to have to serve well to try and put some scoreboard pressure on Jannik Sinner.
If he can do that, he can win a few more games than he managed in Beijing, but you still have to give the Italian a big edge in the contest.
Jannik Sinner has been quite considerably the stronger returner of the two players and he can have a bit more time to dictate things in the rallies to turn a few more points in his favour than he did in the Fourth Round.
Covering this number will not be easy, but Sinner looks the right play here and he may just have too much on both sides of the net for the improving Learner Tien.
Aryna Sabalenka - 4.5 games v Victoria Mboko: There are a couple of young players in the WTA Tour who look really close to having a serious breakthrough and not many would back against Victoria Mboko being the first of those to do that at Grand Slam level.
Her growth over the last twelve months has be monumental and the Canadian is stringing wins together.
She has won a big WTA 1000 event in Montreal, but this year Victoria Mboko has been able to back that up by reaching the Final in Doha and she is on another strong run in Indian Wells. She also reached the Fourth Round in the Australian Open and it has taken some of the biggest names on the Tour to stop her runs.
One of those was Aryna Sabalenka who beat Victoria Mboko in straight sets in Melbourne, although it was anything but a one-sided contest, especially after the teenager got to grips with what she was facing in the second set. A Tie-Breaker was needed by Sabalenka to get through on her way to another Final at that tournament, but she was the stronger player and would like to frank that victory.
Aryna Sabalenka is playing in her first tournament since losing the Australian Open Final and she has not been troubled here, although may be the first to admit that this looks like it could be the toughest test to date.
The serve continues to be an advantage for the World Number 1 and she is going to need to serve well to try and contain the obvious threat that Victoria Mboko brings onto the court.
The World Number 10 has been playing well and the dominant win over Amanda Anisimova will have gotten many sitting up and taking notice. She holds a win over Madison Keys and Elena Rybakina this year and so there is nothing in this match that will intimidate Mboko, but she will look to try and get on the front foot and dictate behind her own serve to see if she can rattle the best player on the Tour.
When they met in Melbourne, Aryna Sabalenka was the stronger return player and that is likely going to be the case again, which makes it right to believe she can eventually have a bit too much for the youngster standing across the net.
Covering is going to be challenging considering what we have seen from Victoria Mboko on the hard courts over the last nine months, but Aryna Sabalenka may just be playing at a high enough level to edge past this line set. It may be a Quarter Final with some swings in momentum, but eventually the Belarusian may have done enough to progress with a stylish looking win on the scoreboard.
MY PICKS: Jannik Sinner - 5.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Aryna Sabalenka - 4.5 Games @ 1.85 William Hill (1 Unit)
Daniil Medvedev - 2.5 Games @ 1.87 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Iga Swiatek - 4.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Indian Wells Update: 9-11, - 3.76 Units (20 Units Staked, - 18.80% Yield)
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