IMAGES from the matches played at the PNB Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Tuesday
Philipp Kohlschreiber upset second seed Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 to advance to the fourth round in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Tuesday.
Cilic's booming serve lacked its usual accuracy and Germany's Kohlschreiber was able to control long rallies, pushing the towering Croatian around the court with pinpoint groundstrokes en route to a quick victory.
Cilic, runner-up at this year's Australian Open, only managed to get 51 percent of his first serves in play and was unable to convert any of his four break-point opportunities.
It is the third time that Kohlschreiber has reached the fourth round at the tournament in the California desert and his seventh victory over Cilic in 11 career meetings.
The 31st seed will next face Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who advanced after Gael Monfils was forced to retire from their match due to back pain.
Sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro fended off veteran Spaniard David Ferrer 6-4, 7-6(3), who battled gamely but was ultimately worn down by del Potro's big serve and punishing forehand.
The win sets up an all-Argentinian fourth round battle between del Potro and countryman Leonardo Mayer, who earlier cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Japan's Taro Daniel.
Del Potro is the second-highest seed remaining in the competition, behind No. 1 Roger Federer, but the Argentine said he was giving no thought to his title chances.
“I’m not thinking about that. I just want to keep winning,” he told reporters.
“It’s good for me to feel this confidence when I get to the court and I play well, but I’m going step by step. I will play another Argentinian guy tomorrow, which is a special match for both. It’s not easy when you play against a friend.”
In other matches, Feliciano Lopez beat Jack Sock 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4, Milos Raonic beat Joao Sousa 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, Sam Querrey took down Yuki Bhambri 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 and Marcos Baghdatis beat Dudi Sela 7-6(5), 6-4.
Yuki Bhambri's stupendous run at the Indian Wells Masters came to an end following his defeat to American world number 21 Sam Querrey in the third round.
The Indian qualifier, ranked 110, pushed his opponent before bowing out with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6 loss, which came after an intense battle lasting two hours and 20 minutes.
The 25-year-old Indian saved 11 of the 15 breakpoints in the gruelling match.
The 45 points he earned by making the third round and 16 from the qualifying event, are likely to push Bhambri back into the top-100 when the new rankings are issued on Monday.
Bhambri had knocked out Nicolas Mahut and world number 12 Lucas Pouille en route the third round.
Bhambri said playing Frenchman Pouille and Querrey was very different.
"They were completely different opponents. Sam has bigger serve and relies a lot on it. That was the difference today. He bailed himself out on a lot of points. Losing serve early in the third set was tough as I was playing catching up after that and more difficult against a big server," Bhambri told PTI.
The Indian Davis Cupper said he has got a lot of confidence from the tournament.
"I feel I can beat anyone. I just need to keep giving myself the opportunities to do that," he said.
World number one Simona Halep overcame a sluggish start to beat Wang Qiang 7-5, 6-1 at the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday and book a quarter-final against Petra Martic in the California desert.
The turning point came after a string of unforced errors left Halep trailing 5-4 in the first set, prompting coach Darren Cahill to tell the defensive specialist to work longer points and reduce the error count.
Halep went on to lose only one more game, easily seeing off the challenge of the world number 55 from China.
The 26-year-old Romanian showed no sign of the foot injury that forced her to withdraw from the Qatar Total Open in Doha last month and is well positioned to make a run at reclaiming the Indian Wells title she won in 2015.
First she will have to get past unseeded Croatian Martic, who advanced to the last eight with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win against Marketa Vondrousova.
"She is a very tough opponent because she is serving pretty strong and also the forehand has a lot of top spin ... So I will have to work hard," Halep told the Tennis Channel.
Former world number one Karolina Pliskova used her powerful serve to overwhelm 16-year-old Amanda Anisimova and reach the quarter-finals for the third year in a row.
Pliskova's 6-1, 7-6(2) win ended a remarkable run for the young American, a wild card who beat ninth seed Petra Kvitova in the third round for the biggest win of her fledgling career.
Pliskova will face 20-year-old Naomi Osaka of Japan, who claimed her 50th career match by defeating Maria Sakkari 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 to reach her first Indian Wells quarter-final.
American Venus Williams booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters for the third time in her career after clinching a straight-sets win over No.21 seed Anastasija Sevastova on Wednesday.
Boosting with confidence after defeating younger sister Serena in the last round for the first time since 2014, Venus went on to seal a 7-6(6), 6-4 win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova in a thrilling fourth-round clash that lasted an hour and 48 minutes.
Following the win, Venus admitted that it was not at all an easy match.
"It was not an easy match to figure out. She has everything in her game. And it was a quick comeback from yesterday, where you have the emotions of, 'Hey, this feels like a final! But guess what, you're only in the fourth round’," the WTA quoted Venus, as saying.
Venus will now lock horns with Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarter-finals.
Caroline Wozniacki blew any chance she had to overtake Simona Halep as world number one after losing 6-4, 7-5 to Darya Kasatkina in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Tuesday.
Australian Open champion Wozniacki fell to the same player who knocked her out of last month's St. Petersburg Ladies Open.
“I’m just going on court and actually now enjoying every minute during I’m playing,” 20th seed Kasatkina told reporters.
“And, yeah, I’m playing (my) best matches against the best players. But as I say, if you want to be on the top, you have to beat the top players. So quite simple rule.”
Facing Kasatkina in the quarters will be No. 10 seed Angelique Kerber, who easily defeated Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-1.
