World No. 1 Novak Djokovic took another step toward defending his Indian Wells title with a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) win over American John Isner on Wednesday.
Djokovic has struggled in the past with the 2.08m Isner’s bombing serve on the hardcourts of the California desert.
However, the reigning Australian Open champ got the best of his opponent in the key tiebreaker.
“John has one of the best serves in the game,” Djokovic said. “It was difficult to hang in there mentally. He had chances in the second set, but I managed to get through in straight sets.”
Djokovic booked a quarter-final clash with 35th-ranked Bernard Tomic of Australia.
Tomic eliminated fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
In 2012, Isner upset Djokovic 7-6 (9/7), 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) in the semis, a defeat Djokovic avenged last year by beating Isner 7-5, 6-7 (2/7), 6-1 to reach the final.
Djokovic now has a 6-2 advantage in career meetings, with nine of the sets going into tiebreakers. Isner has won six of those, so Djokovic felt fortunate to squeak through this time.
Djokovic hammered seven aces and saved both break points he faced in the 1 hour, 31 minute match.
Four-time Indian Wells winner Roger Federer needed just 69 minutes to oust American Jack Sock 6-3, 6-2.
In the quarter-finals, the Swiss second seed will face ninth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 winner over compatriot Lukas Rosol.
Federer and Berdych have met 18 times with the Swiss holding a 12-6 lead.
World No. 3 Rafael Nadal rolled over France’s Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-4. The left-handed Spaniard hammered four aces and broke Simon five times to set up a meeting with hard-hitting Milos Raonic of Canada.
Raonic hammered a 241kph serve en route to a 6-3, 6-2 straight-set win over Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Raonic is in his second straight quarter-final, but he will have his work cut out for him because he has never beaten Nadal in five career meetings.
Fourth-seeded Andy Murray, trying to rebound from a season year last year, defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round.
Murray next faces Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who upset fifth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).
In the women’s singles, Serena Williams won the clash between two of the hottest players on the WTA Tour with a straight-set victory over Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.
World No. 1 Williams extended her match win streak to 15 by beating the red-hot Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-3 on the Tennis Garden stadium court.
“She was on a winning streak, so I was like: ‘I hope I win tonight, because she hasn’t lost in a really long time,’” Williams said of Bacsinszky, who came into the tournament off back-to-back WTA titles in Acapulco and Monterrey, Mexico.
Bacsinszky’s fourth-round win over Elina Svitolina was her 15th consecutive match win, including Fed Cup play.
Williams now faces third-seeded Simona Halep after the Romanian beat Spain’s Carla Suarez in three sets.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS