Top seed Rafa Nadal will open his Indian Wells title defence against Radek Stepanek after the Czech overcame a poor second set to beat Denis Istomin 6-1 3-6 6-1 in the first round.

Stepanek, ranked 50th in the world, was broken only once and did not double fault but needed nearly two hours to defeat the Uzbek.

Lleyton Hewitt notched his 599th win when he beat fellow Australian Matthew Ebden 7-6 3-6 6-3.

Hewitt will try for his 600th career victory in a second round encounter against South African Kevin Anderson, who has been a losing finalist in his past two ATP events.

The top 32 seeds receive a bye to the second round, with the leading players making their first appearance over the weekend.

Serbian Novak Djokovic is the second seed, while Stanislas Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion from Switzerland, is third seed for the season’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

On the women’s side, Li Na is the top seed and meets compatriot Jie Zheng in the second round.

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