The World Number five successfully avenged his shock Australian Open first round loss, beating fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 7-6 in the third round on 15 March. No. 16 seed Gilles Simon lost to Alexander Zverev 6-2, 6-2.
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Williams had 21 winners and went unbroken despite serving at just 55 per cent, closing out her victory in 63 minutes.
“I lost matches similar to this one in Australia, in Buenos Aires, in Rio de Janeiro, so it’s important winning matches like this for me”.
Nishikori, uncomfortable in the blustery conditions at Indian Wells, saved four set points in the first tiebreak and, after failing to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, escaped another tiebreak to close out a almost two-hour battle.
Nadal was actually down a break in the second and down 6-3 in the tiebreaker before rallying over the 65th-ranked Verdasco.
Williams will play defending champion Simona Halep in the quarterfinals, a year after she withdrew before their semifinal match with a knee injury.
The build-up to the competition at Indian Wells was dominated by fresh doping claims after Russia’s five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova announced she had failed a drugs test for meldonium, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list on January 1, at the Australian Open.
The two competitors remained on serve with little separation once again in the first few games of the second set, but Djokovic finally notched a clutch break to move ahead, 4-2.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori won his third round match Tuesday defeating Steve Johnson 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5).
The 26-year-old will face John Isner, a 6-4 7-6(4) victor against Adrian Mannarino, in the next round.
That year spectators at Indian Wells booed Williams during the final and jeered her sister, Venus, and father Richard Williams when the pair arrived to watch the match.
“I found it (Putintseva’s style) good to play”. “I’m not the biggest server on the tour, so I try to mix it up, try not to panic, stay relaxed and focussed”.
“I was really ready for a long, long fight and a long three-set match and that was that quick”.
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also defeated American Sam Querrey 6-3 6-4 in other results.
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Williams was joined in the fourth round by No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, a 6-2, 6-1 victor over Monica Niculescu of Romania; eighth-seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who won the final four games of the match to beat Johanna Larsson of Sweden, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; and No. 19 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who routed Coco Vandeweghe of the USA 6-0, 6-1.
