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 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.
"Then suddenly I just had a big loss of concentration and allowed
him to win the second set for no reason. I bounced back better in
the third."
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 Rafa 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.
"I obviously cannot allow myself to have these particular
concentration lapses in the match at this level especially in the
next match when I'm playing Cilic, a guy who is in really good form
and I think has gotten better in last couple of months working with
(Goran) Ivanisevic."
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.
"I think all the match I was feeling pretty good, except the last
game," Li was quoted as saying on the WTA website
(www.wtatennis.com).
"The funny thing was that in the beginning of the game I was feeling
tight, nervous, and then I was like, "What's going on? Why can't I
finish the match?" and she wasn't giving up, and was defending so
well. It was really tough.
"All I can say is wow, she saved a lot of match points. She's pretty
good."
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.
[to top of second column] |
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.
"At 3-1, I kind of found my way, found my rhythm, and I was striking
the ball very well out there and took control of the points," said
Jankovic.
"I just did not let her play what she plays. That was very
important. So I was pretty pleased with the way I played and how
composed I stayed throughout the whole match."
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
trailing 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."
Hale's next match will be against Australian qualifier Casey
Dellacqua, who got a walkover to the quarter-finals after her
American Lauren Davis retired with gastrointestinal illness.
(Reporting by Julian Linden in New York; additional reporting by
Amlan Chakraborty; editing by Frank Pingue and Greg Stutchbury)
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