Indian Wells: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic continued his domination over Kevin Anderson, rolling over the South African 6-2, 6-3 in the third round of the ATP-WTA Indian Wells tournament on Monday.
Top seed Djokovic has now beaten Anderson four straight times, including three matches in 2011. After winning the Australian Open, defending champion Djokovic is now 12-1 on the season in his third tournament.
He will be hard-pressed to match his performance of last year when he had one of the best seasons in the history of the sport, but he is showing no signs of slowing down either.
“I think I served well and put a lot of pressure on him and returned really, really good,” Djokovic said. “So I’m really happy with this win today. It wasn’t easy.”
The 24-year-old Serb advances to the fourth round, where he will play Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who beat countryman Albert Ramos 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Meanwhile, defending champion Caroline Wozniacki recovered from a shaky opening set to battle past Swede Sofia Arvidsson 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the third round on Monday.
Wozniacki, who beat Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in last year’s final, initially struggled to hold serve on a cool evening but found her form to break her opponent three times in the final set and seal victory in two hours, 37 minutes.
The 21-year-old Dane, wearing an orange dress and matching visor, pumped her left fist in delight after pouncing on a drop shot and unleashing a crosscourt backhand winner to break the Swede and lead 5-2.
Fourth-seeded Wozniacki then coolly served out for victory, ending the match with a forehand winner after Arvidsson had again teased her forward with a drop shot. “I knew it was going to be a tough match,” a smiling Wozniacki said in a courtside interview at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden after a marathon baseline battle between the two Scandinavians.
Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden surprised Mardy Fish, beating the eighth-seeded American 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round.
The 24-year-old Ebden said the win over the US No. 1 was the biggest win of his career.Ebden got a break in the ninth game of the second set when the umpire called a hinderance penalty against Fish, who was serving at 4-4.
Fish lost his cool with the umpire and Ebden ended up breaking Fish to go ahead 5-4 and then served for the match, winning all four points in the final game.
It was a mixed day for the Aussies on Monday.
Playing for the first time since their epic three-hour, 16-minute match at the US Open last year, Nadia Petrova outlasted Australia’s Samantha Stosur in another three-set marathon.
This time, Petrova won on the third match point but she needed two hours, 46 minutes to defeat sixth-seeded Stosur 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5). Stosur, who beat Petrova at the US Open before going on to win her first Grand Slam title, has lost five of seven career matches to the world No. 33 Petrova dating to their first meeting at the 2004 US Open. (Agencies)