ATP World Tour Champion Rafael Nadal set up a blockbuster fourth round showdown with Argentine David Nalbandian after dismissing Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 6-3 Tuesday to reach the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open. Tursunov held break point with Nadal serving for the match, but the Spaniard won the next three points to seal the victory.
The 22-year-old Nadal is attempting to reclaim the BNP Paribas Open title after falling to Djokovic in the semifinals last year, but will next need to earn his first victory against Nalbandian, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Serbian Viktor Troicki. The Argentine leads the head-to-head series 2-0 with back-to-back wins in 2007 at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Paris. He is one of only three active players, along with Dominik Hrbaty (3-1) and James Blake (3-2), to beat Nadal at least twice and have a winning record.
Nadal looked ahead to his next match: “The first thing is play well. Second, I have to play ready because he has the control of the point, gonna be almost impossible, no? He plays tight, and he moves all the time. He has very good control. I have to try to play long and try to play hard all the time with the good intensity and very good rhythm.”
Defending champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open with a 6-2, 7-6(1) win over German Tommy Haas, who was looking to replicate his impressive showing last year in Indian Wells when he posted wins over Andy Murray and Andy Roddick en route to the quarterfinals.
Djokovic won his two break points in the opening set, but was forced into a tie-break after making good on just one of his nine opportunities in the second set. He lost the first point of the tie-break but held the German off the board the remainder of the way, clinching the victory in one hour and 47 minutes after Haas hit a return long.
“[It was] better than the first match,” Djokovic said about his performance. “I think I played really well in the opening set, and then could have done the job a bit earlier. Had some break chances and didn't make a couple returns, and gave him a chance to come back into the match. So I was lucky, because it could go in the third set, and then who knows? Overall, I'm happy with the way I played, and hopefully I can continue.”
The Serbian, who made his Indian Wells debut with a first-round exit in 2006, has not dropped a set en route to his two final runs the past two years. He lost to Nadal in the 2007 title match, and prevailed against American Mardy Fish in three sets last year.
The World No. 3 will next face Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka, who pulled off a 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(2) victory over American Sam Querrey in two hours and 22 minutes. The 16th-seeded Wawrinka saved match points at 6-5 and 8-7 in the third-set tie-break. Djokovic holds a 4-2 record against Wawrinka, most recently prevailing last May in the final of the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. The two also faced off in the Indian Wells quarterfinals last year.
American Andy Roddick saved two set points in the second set before going on to close out the match against No. 31 seed Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 7-6(4). Roddick will look to reach the Indian Wells quarterfinals for the fifth time when he takes on Spaniard David Ferrer, who posted a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. Ferrer previously reached the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals in 2007 (l. to Djokovic).
World No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro went the distance in his third round match against No. 30 seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria, prevailing 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) in two hours. The 20-year-old is seeded to face Nadal in the quarterfinals, but will first come up against American wild card John Isner, who surprised former World No. 1 Marat Safin 6-4, 6-4 to extend his best showing at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.
Both del Potro and Isner achieved their best results this season at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Auckland. Del Potro, who won his first four ATP World Tour titles in successive tournament appearances last summer, captured the title while Isner reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2634.ASP)
