 Sixteen-time Grand Slam winner Federer is chasing a fourth title at Indian Wells
World number two Roger Federer made a winning start at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, beating Russia's Igor Andreev 7-5 7-6 (7-4) in round two. The Swiss 16-time Grand Slam champion, a three-time winner of this event, will now face Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela. Third seed Novak Djokovic remains unbeaten in 2011 after crushing Andrey Golubev 6-0 6-4 and eighth seed Andy Roddick overcame James Blake 6-3 7-5. In the women's draw, third seed Vera Zvonareva lost to Dominika Cibulkova. Federer, who received a bye in the opening round, was worked hard by world number 96 Andreev but managed to come through without dropping a set. He took the last 10 points of the first set to get a foothold on the match and opened the second with a break of serve. Andreev hit back for 2-2 but the 27-year-old was unable to extend the match to a third set as Federer, 29, wrapped up the tie-break when his opponent pounded a forehand into the net. "I played really well," said Federer, who plays 29th seed Chela after he beat Germany's Philipp Petzschner 4-6 7-5 6-2. "In your first match, you never have too much expectation and you just hope to get through.  In-form Djokovic has won all 13 of his matches this season |
"I had a good 10 minutes where I was able to get up 7-5 2-0. After that, he found his way into the match and it really became competitive. I played a really good tie-break, which obviously makes things better towards the end." Australian Open champion Djokovic, winner at Indian Wells in 2008, extended his perfect record this season to 13-0 with victory over world number 39 Golubev. The Serbian stormed through the opening set in 21 minutes before withstanding a brief fightback early in the second to set up a third-round meeting with Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, a 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (9-7) 6-1 winner against Taiwan's Yen-hsun Lu. "It was a great start to the tournament," said 23-year-old Djokovic, who was also given a first-round bye. "I was in control most of the match. "If you're on a run, you don't want to mess up, you don't want to stumble. You just want to keep on going and hold the momentum, so this is what I'm trying to do." Roddick, defeated by Ivan Ljubicic in last year's final, sent down 13 aces and won 94% of his first serve points to oust fellow American Blake and book an encounter with John Isner following his 6-3 7-6 (7-2) victory over Ricardo Mello of Brazil. Although he trailed 3-0 in the second set, 28-year-old Roddick broke Blake's erratic serve twice in the next eight games to regain control and improve his record this season to 15-2. Seventh seed Tomas Berdych had little trouble seeing off Lukasz Kubot 6-4 6-1, while Jurgen Melzer, Stanislas Wawrinka and wildcard Milos Raonic were among the other winners.  Clijsters could regain the number one ranking over the next week |
In the doubles, Britain's Andy and Jamie Murray advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3 3-6 10-3 win against John Isner and Sam Querrey of the United States. Meanwhile, world number three Zvonareva became the most high-profile women's casualty to date with a 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 defeat by Slovakia's Cibulkova in a match lasting more than three hours. Cibulkova, seeded 25th, needed four match points to overcome the Russian for the first time in four meetings and will now face 23rd-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who beat Kaia Kanepi 3-6 6-4 6-1. There was also a struggle for second seed Kim Clijsters but the four-time Grand Slam champion overcame an unconvincing performance to beat Italy's Sara Errani 6-3 2-6 6-4. The Belgian hit six aces but 13 double faults, failing to hold serve twice in the opening set and three times in the second. However, the 2003 and 2005 champion prevailed and will take on Mario Bartoli for a quarter-final place after the French 15th seed beat Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-4 6-2 . "It wasn't my best tennis today," conceded Clijsters, who won the Australian Open in January but before this week had not competed for almost a month since losing to Petra Kvitova in the Paris Open final. "I just felt a little slower on the feet. And serving, my shoulder has been bothering me for a while. On this surface against a player who plays with a lot of topspin, I just feel it a little bit more. "I played a tricky player who played a good match but I was still able to win without being close to coming to my best level. That's the positive thing." After the match, 27-year-old Clijsters said on social networking site Twitter: "Having a bit of treatment on my shoulder... Getting old I guess. Shoulder nothing serious just need to pay attention, have treatment..." There were comfortable wins for defending champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who crushed Germany's Julia Goerges 6-2 6-4, and fifth seed Francesca Schiavone, a 6-2 6-3 victory over Alize Cornet of France. Jankovic failed to hold serve only once and converted four of her eight break point opportunities to extend her winning streak at Indian Wells to eight matches. In other matches, 10th seed Shahar Peer of Israel needed two hours and 17 minutes to scrape past 17th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6 6-3 7-5 and Serbia's Ana Ivanovic swept aside Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-2 6-2.
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