Normal service resumed at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells 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 quarter-finals.
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.
“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.
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 an 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.
“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.”
While Robredo lost to Cilic, three of his compatriots all advanced with Fernando Verdasco upsetting world no.9 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 last eight.
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the second seed, breezed past Alize Cornet of France 7-5 6-3.