Djokovic crashes out, Nadal battles through

Reuters - Thu, 18 Mar 02:14:00 2010

Novak Djokovic tumbled out of the Indian Wells Masters, upset 7-5 6-3 by big-serving Croat Ivan Ljubicic in the fourth round.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia wipes his brow during his match against Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia at the Indian Wells ATP tennis tournament in Indian Wells, - 0

While holder Rafael Nadal took three sets to overcame towering American John Isner 7-5 3-6 6-3, second seed Djokovic was eliminated in a match lasting one hour and 44 minutes.

The Serbian world number two, winner here in 2008, lost his serve in the sixth game of the second set and sent a forehand service return long to hand Ljubicic victory.

Ljubicic, the 20th seed, fired down 13 aces in the searing desert sunshine to record only his second win against Djokovic in seven meetings.

"I had a lot of opportunities and I didn't use many of them," Djokovic said after converting only two of five break point chances.

"My execution was very bad and he played well when he needed to."

Although the 6ft 4in (1.93m) Ljubicic lost serve in the third game of the match, he broke back in the eighth and 12th to take the opening set in just under an hour.

Repeatedly unleashing first serves above 130 mph, he swept through the second set to book a place in the quarter-finals against 21st seed Juan Monaco of Argentina, who beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 3-6 6-2 6-1 earlier in the day.

"I served well," said Ljubicic, who climbed to a career-high third in the world rankings in 2006. "My serve helped me, especially in difficult moments.

"You can't beat Novak only with a serve, but it does help you a lot if you can get a lot of free points off that shot. I was striking the ball nicely, and I felt like I could control the points off the baseline."

Djokovic's early departure followed the premature exit on Tuesday of world number one and three-times champion Roger Federer, who suffered a shock defeat to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Twice champion Nadal, who beat Andy Murray in last year's final, broke the six-foot-nine Isner in the fourth game of the final set before sealing victory with a forehand winner down the line.

The Spanish left-hander leaned backwards in delight to celebrate his advance to the last eight where he will play Czech Tomas Berdych, who crushed Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-1 6-3.

"I am feeling really well and I am feeling good on court," said Nadal, who has shaken off the knee injury that forced him to abandon his Australian Open title defence in January.

Seventh-seeded American Andy Roddick needed just one break of serve to beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-6(5) 6-4 in a tight match and will next meet Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who battled past Baghdatis 7-5 0-6 6-4.

WTA Indian Wells

Quarter Finals - Thursday 7pm LIVE on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin 521) & 11pm LIVE on British Eurosport 2 (Sky 411 / Virgin 525) and Eurosport Player

Semi-Finals - Friday 7pm LIVE on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin 521) and Eurosport Player

Final - Sunday 21st March 6.30pm LIVE on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin 521) and Eurosport Player

Reuters

Comment 23 - 42 of 42

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  1. I wish either Soderling or Roddick to win this first­ Master title of the yr instead of Nadal or Murray or­ someone else. It will be great to see these two­ players to win an important title when some of the big­ guns are gone. But it is still nice to see Nadal­ winning this title again as he has not won anything for­ almost 11 months. To claim this title could be a big­ boost to him in his confidence and making the mens­ competition more exciting in the next few months. I­ always like to see Federer to win more majors titles­ and get back to his old dominant form to win at least­ 8-10 titles a yr (though this is difficult now compared­ to 3-4 yrs ago), but only if he plays good and­ consistent enough to deserve this. Hope he will play­ better in the next tournament. He has not been­ playing well in this March USA hard court master season­ for 3 yrs in a row now.

    From Des, on Sat 20 Mar 7:33

  2. Con, Nina, Igor... our mate Coolworld said a few­ times that there are hackers around here who like to­ remove posting from this site, not by this site­ admin. people. I don't know if this is true or­ not. But for sure some people had a habbit to give­ repeat endless thumbs down to some regular posting to­ cause them all become 'hidden' post due to low­ rating. I remember there was a day several weeks ago­ when we see almost 2-3 pages of posting had appeared as­ hidden post as they all got over 20-30 thumbs down ! ­ Someone stupid or brainless must be playing this game­ around. Sorry that we have this kind of no-brain­ animal around on this planet....I guess these people­ must be jobless without anything to do and don't­ know what they should do for living.

    I had used the­ 'Report abuse' function a few times against­ some of those unrelated post which is repeat on this­ site everyday... you know which of these posts I am­ talking about. But the administrator here had never­ done anything to block them.... So I doubt if this­ 'Report abuse' function works at all.... So I­ don't bother anymore

    From Des, on Sat 20 Mar 7:22

  3. Nadal or Ljubo to win.. If Ljubo isn`t in such a great­ form, then I would say Nadal definitly.
    Murray hmm..­ he is not up there yet with his form.
    but who knows

    From Phoenix, on Sat 20 Mar 3:51

  4. Anyway, let's stay on topic. Do you think Nadal can­ claim the title? I think he has what it takes but it­ won't be easy.

    From Nina, on Sat 20 Mar 2:20

  5. Well, that's pretty cowardly to be honest. And I­ mean, they are too naive if they think admins never­ read posts. They do and it will be revealed eventually.­ Well, it's actually been revealed.

    From Nina, on Sat 20 Mar 2:00

  6. .. and if one reports someone, admins should read­ reported messag, and read "the reason to­ report" and compare it.. and deceide..
    there­ wasn`t any reason here.

    I noticed the same here many­ times.

    From Phoenix, on Sat 20 Mar 1:59

  7. Con there was no reasoon that sane person reports Nina

    From Phoenix, on Sat 20 Mar 1:56

  8. Con, I can hardly believe this. It's an indirect­ attack. I mean, isn't it just sad that someone has­ to use such a poor style just because they want to­ "dominate" the discussion? Sad, very sad­ indeed.

    From Nina, on Sat 20 Mar 1:23

  9. Eurosport does not respect freedom of speech

    From Nina, on Sat 20 Mar 0:37

  10. What's exactly is going on here, admins? Why are­ you deleting my posts when I did not say anything­ offensive???? I mean there is a difference btw a code­ of conduct and censorship!

    From Nina, on Sat 20 Mar 0:36

  11. well said checkerboard5000 :-)

    From Phoenix, on Sat 20 Mar 0:23

  12. Nina and Con's post are all gone between my #35 and­ #36 which are 4 hrs apart. .... What's going on­ here again. May be when we return, all my post from­ #34-37 will be removed as well....

    From Des, on Fri 19 Mar 23:40

  13. Con`s post ?
    where ?

    From Phoenix, on Fri 19 Mar 23:11

  14. good work Des :-)
    ...and yes, Nina`s post is just gone­ ? #37
    ???

    From Phoenix, on Fri 19 Mar 23:11

  15. #37 Nina. Good for you to play amateur and nice­ talking to you here for the first time.

    From Des, on Fri 19 Mar 22:11

  16. Something strange happened on this site again. I read­ CON's 3 short comment after my last post #35 but­ now suddenly they are all erased by the site ???

    From Des, on Fri 19 Mar 22:10

  17. #27. Hey CON. That's what I have known about­ you ... A Coin (CON) has two sides. One side of­ you always give good and fair comment. The other side­ of you could light up a forrest in split seconds. ­ Hope we always can get the nice side of you from each­ toss....haha. Just kidding my pal.

    From Des, on Fri 19 Mar 18:11

  18. #22 checkerboard. Take it easy man. You do have a­ good memory of what other mate had said before. Good­ for you. You had some good post and tennis sharing­ as well. The good thing of this site is all of us­ here can 'act' like an experts ....haha. I­ suspect some people here don't even know how to­ swing a racquet. It is just fun and enjoyable for­ everyone to express their comment regardless they are­ saying things right or wrong as there are always people­ to agree or disagree. To some people, my post­ could be always like garbage and gave me lots of thumb­ down..... It;s Ok. This is just a place for us­ to relax and stand away from the boring daily work for­ a few minutes. Let's move on. cheer :)

    From Des, on Fri 19 Mar 18:03

  19. When is Nadal starting? I´m eager to see him. I´ll get­ up in the middle of the night forgetting my dreams...

    From Andrés, on Fri 19 Mar 16:09

  20. Novak said earlier this year how he worked so hard to­ stay fit and injury free..
    I like him, but he had no­ extra energy left to play in Indian Wells, over worked­ !
    Hope he will do much better in Miami with extra days­ to rest.

    Rafa seems to be fit ? hello ? still playing­ pretty physical and playing the doubles too, concerned­ as a fan.
    God willing, he will defend the title. Vamos­ campeon !

    From global trotter, on Fri 19 Mar 13:20
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