Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were both made to work hard on Monday before reaching the fourth round of Indian Wells, but defending women’s singles champion Mirra Andreeva crashed out and let her frustrations boil over on court.
Third seed Djokovic overcame a second-set reverse to beat Aleksandar Kovacevic of the US 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and reach the round-of-16 for the first time since 2017, setting up a clash with reigning champion Jack Draper, who swept past Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion, who has claimed a record-equaling five titles at the Californian desert event, said he had been managing a forearm problem for the past two weeks.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
“It’s a bit odd: The more I serve, the better I feel, but it comes on and off if I get cold,” Djokovic told the Tennis Channel. “If I don’t serve for five or six minutes then I feel like the first couple of serves of that game are a bit painful. I’m working through it. It’s not something I haven’t faced before.”
“I’m trying to manage my body and mental state on a daily basis so I can be peaking as much as I possibly can on a given day... It’s not going to get easier... Draper is next and playing at a high level again, but I love the challenge,” he said.
Britain’s Draper, playing his second event after an arm injury of his own, was in commanding form as he breezed through the opening set before enduring a stiff challenge from his Argentine opponent in the second.
Alcaraz was also tested by Arthur Rinderknech and faced the threat of losing his first match of the year after dropping the first set and his serve early in the second, but the world No.1 recovered to prevail 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-2.
The Spaniard rolled his ankle midway through the contest, but shrugged off the injury scare and pulled level, before switching gears to improve his record this year to 14-0.
Up next for the twice champion is Casper Ruud, who downed Rinderknech’s cousin Valentin Vacherot 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Katerina Siniakova caused the biggest upset of the day in the women’s singles by beating Andreeva 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, prompting the defending champion to throw her racket toward her chair and storm off the court after shouting at a section of the crowd.
“There were a lot of emotions that I was going through after the loss,” said Andreeva, who also smashed a racket earlier. “But of course I’m not really proud of how I managed it... Those are the things that I really need to work on soon. Not in the future, but whenever I get the chance.”
Siniakova’s Czech compatriot Karolina Muchova was equally impressive as she defeated Croatian Antonia Ruzic 6-0, 6-3, while Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic eased past Belgian Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-3.
Second seed Iga Swiatek, twice a champion at Indian Wells, overpowered Maria Sakkari with a commanding 6-3, 6-2 win, but it was the end of the road for Madison Keys of the US, who crashed 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 against Britain’s Sonay Kartal.
Fifth seed Jessica Pegula kept the flag flying for US by recovering to defeat former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and advance to the fourth round.
Fellow American Alex Michelsen earlier ousted seventh seed and home favorite Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) in the men’s singles and Britain’s Cameron Norrie continued his run by beating Australian sixth seed Alex de Minaur 6-4 6-4.
Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata also caught the eye, recovering from a first-set tiebreak deficit to defeat Kazakh 10th seed Alexander Bublik 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in a hard-fought contest lasting more than two-and-a-half hours.
Russia’s Daniil Medvedev was in no mood to waste time as he saw off Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-0 in 78 minutes to close out the evening’s action.
In the round-of-16 of the women’s doubles, eighth seeds Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands and Ellen Perez of Australia defeated Japan’s Eri Hozumi and Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien 6-1, 6-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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