Rafael Nadel eases through in Indian Wells
Sunday, 14 March 2010Defending champion Rafael Nadal cruised into the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Germany's Rainer Schuettler.
The third-seeded Spaniard will now meet Mario Ancic in the next round, with the unseeded Croatian having struggled past Frenchman Julien Benneteau 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic survived a disastrous second set to defeat Mardy Fish 6-1 0-6 6-2. The World number two had five double faults before triumphing over the American - who is ranked 104 places below him - just as he did in the final two years ago.
Also going through was fifth seed Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Ernests Gulbis 6-4 6-4.
Fernando Verdasco, seeded 10th, cruised past Ramon Delgado 6-4 6-1, and will now face Tomas Berdych, who beat Florent Serra.
The highest-profile loser of the day was Croatian Marin Cilic, the eighth seed who went down 7-6 (3-1) 6-0 to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
There were also victories for John Isner, Sam Querrey, Juan Monaco, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Brian Dabul, Ivan Ljubicic and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Viktor Troicki advanced when Pablo Cuevas retired after just one game.
