JOIN USDjokovic sails safely into fourth round; Li wins
Normal service resumed at the BNP Paribas Open here on Tuesday when Novak Djokovic safely booked his place in the fourth round of the men's draw and Li Na moved into the women's quarterfinals.
Djokovic had a little hiccup when he dropped the second set of his match with Colombia's Alejandro Gonzalez but was otherwise untroubled in winning 6-1 3-6 6-1.
"I thought I played really well from the start," said Djokovic, a two-time champion at Indian Wells.
While the Serbian was not at his best, Djokovic did at least survive to fight another day in the Californian desert after the shock losses of world number one Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova on Monday.
Djokovic's next opponent is the big-serving Croatian Marin Cilic, who recorded his 20th win this season with a 6-4, 6-3 over Spain's Tommy Robredo.
Li, promoted to the women's top seed after winning the Australian Open and in the absence of Serena Williams, beat Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-4 but only after a extraordinary final game where she struggled to close out the match.
Li raced through the opening set in just over half an hour then recovered from 3-0 down to serve for the match at 5-4 when she suddenly got the wobbles. The final game lasted 20 minutes as Li squandered 10 match points and took her tally of double-faults for the match to nine before she finally sealed the win. "I only can say: Welcome to the crazy women's tennis tour," she told the crowd in a courtside interview.
Verdasco through
While Robredo lost to the towering Cilic, three of his compatriots all advanced with Fernando Verdasco upsetting world number nine Richard Gasquet of France 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 to leave Djokovic as the only top-10 player left in the bottom half of the men's draw. Roberto Bautista Agut held his nerve to beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) to move on before Feliciano Lopez joined the Spanish Armada with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
In the women's draw, Serbia's Jelena Jankovic ended her five-match losing streak to Denmark's Carolina Wozniacki when she reeled off 10 consecutive games to win 6-3 6-1 and advance to the quarter-finals. The Dane, speaking to a newspaper on Tuesday, also indicated that she was in no hurry to zero in on a coach as her father, Piotr, is playing a key role in her coaching team.
Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, the second seed, breezed past Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 6-3 while Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova brushed aside the challenge of Petra Kvitova, beating the Czech 6-3, 6-2.
Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi came back to Earth with a thud when she was thrashed 6-2, 6-1 by compatriot Flavia Pennetta less than 24 hours after she stunned Sharapova.
Romania's Simona Halep qualified for the last eight with a hard-fought 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 win over Canada's Eugenie Bouchard after trailling 4-3 in the deciding set.
"It wasn't my best tennis today, but I was fighting a lot," said Halep, ranked seventh in the world. "I did well. I think I came back in the third set very well."