JOIN USOn-song Djokovic puts it past Blake
The second-seeded Serb barely needed an hour on Sunday to mow down Blake, a fading force at age 31 who once stood inside the top five. Djokovic has not lost a match since November and has won his past 21 on the trot dating to the Davis Cup final in December.
The comeback of unseeded Argentine Juan Del Potro gained pace with the South American former US Open champion upsetting fourth seed Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-2. “I played a really good match,” said the winner who missed much of 2010 after a wrist operation.
“I served much better than before. This is what I need if I want to beat top 10 players.”
Wimbledon marathon man John Isner ended the dream for American journeyman Alex Bogomolov with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) result while South African Kevin Anderson beat Spain’s Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-3.
American Mardy Fish, seeded 14th and without a result to boast of in Miami, beat Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-3. Fish is now the highest-ranked home player left in contention after holder Andy Roddick was upset in his opening match and was set to drop from the top 10 next week.
On the women’s side, Kim Clisters and Vera Zvonareva led a sweep of women’s seeds into the fourth round with number two Clijsters recovering for a defeat of Spain’s Maria Martinez Sanchez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The third-seeded Zvonareva, losing finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open, beat Australian Jarmila Groth 7-6, (7-4), 6-2. There were also third-round wins for French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, the number five, who beat Spain’s Llourdes Dominguez Lino 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) and number nine Agnieszka Radwanska as the Pole put out Maria Kirilenko of Russia 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
Victoria Azarenka, seed eighth, needed to fight back to get past Slovak Domenika Cibulkova 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 15th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, losing finalist a week ago in the Indian Wells final, accounted for Ekaterina Makarova with the loss of just two games, posting a lop-sided 6-0, 6-2 win.
Clijsters is making a solid recovery from a shoulder injury that forced the Australian Open champion to quit a match last week in California and rest.
“It takes a lot of work, and I have to focus a lot of my attention and my time on my shoulder,” Clijsters said, “but I know if I can do that, that it will stay stable. That’s obviously what I’m hoping for.”
The mother of one is to next face another former number one player in Ana Ivanovic after the Serb beat Virginie Razzano 2-6, 6-2, 3-0 when the French player retired with a left thigh injury. Clijsters has won all four of their previous meetings, the most recent at the US Open last autumn.