Novak Djokovic shook off a mid-match lapse to beat Alejandro Gonzalez on Tuesday and set up a clash with red-hot Croatian Marin Cilic at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
Djokovic, the world No 2 and second seed, defeated world No 91 Gonzalez 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, but said he’ll have to play better in the fourth round against Cilic.
“I thought I played really well from the start,” said Djokovic, who lifted the trophy in the California desert in 2008 and 2011. “Then suddenly I just had a big loss of concentration and allowed him to win the second set for no reason.”
Djokovic appeared to be cruising toward a win until a sloppy spell late in the second set saw Gonzalez break for a 5-3 lead and win the next game to bring the match level.
Djokovic regained control with a demoralising break in the second game of the third set, in which Gonzalez had nine game points before the Serbian star converted his first break chance.
“In the end of the day, a win is a win,” Djokovic said. “I have to try to look on the positive side and get myself ready for the next one.”
Djokovic, 26, is seeking to jump-start a 2014 campaign that is off to a slow start.
His bid for a fourth straight Australian Open title ended in a quarter-final loss to eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka, and he fell to Roger Federer in the semi-finals at Dubai in his only other tournament this year.
He knows Cilic, who beat 16th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-3, will be a dangerous opponent.
Cilic, who has begun working with former Croatian great Goran Ivanisevic, collected his 10th and 11th ATP titles at Zagreb and Delray Beach last month.
Cilic, the 24th seed, won five straight games to win the first set and take a 3-0 lead in the second.
The former top-10 player has lost only once in his last 17 matches, to Tomas Berdych in the final at Rotterdam.
“I obviously cannot allow myself to have these particular concentration lapses in the match at this level,” Djokovic said. “Especially in the next match when I’m playing Cilic, a guy who is in really good form and I think has gotten better in last couple of months.”
In other men’s third-round matches in the $12 million (Dh44m) combined ATP and WTA event, Spain’s No 30 seed Fernando Verdasco sent eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet packing 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
Verdasco next faces either Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan or John Isner, the last American remaining in the men’s field.
No 20 seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia bounced back from a first-set loss to beat 15th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. Roberto Bautista Agut, who shocked Tomas Berdych earlier in the tournament, advanced with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8/5) victory over Jarkko Nieminen, as well. Julien Benneteau and Feliciano Lopez rounded out the third-round men's winners.
The women’s quarter-finals also took shape on Tuesday.
Li Na needed 11 match points to put away Aleksandra Wozniak to book an Indian Wells clash with Dominika Cibulkova, the woman she beat in the Australian Open final.
China’s Li, the world No 2 and top seed in the tournament, defeated Canada’s Wozniak 6-1, 6-4 to secure her quarter-final berth.
She steamed through the opening set in 32 minutes, but needed another hour to finally wrap up the second set against a player whose ranking has tumbled to 241st as she was sidelined by injury.
All 11 of Li’s match points came in the final game, with two break points for Wozniak mixed in.
“Welcome to the crazy women’s tennis tour,” Li said.
“The funny thing is, beginning of the game I was feeling tight, nervous, and then I was feeling like what’s going on? Why can’t I finish the match?
“But she never gave up, she tried to defend every point. Yeah, it was a little bit tedious in the last game.”
Four of Li’s nine double faults came in the final game, and she lost her cool briefly when a successful challenge of a line call brought not a point awarded – on her third match point – but a replay of the point.
“I was really angry, because I saw I won the point,” she said. “But suddenly I heard ‘Replay’.
“I was like, ‘Replay? What are you talking about?’”
Li lost the replayed point and the game went to the first of 10 deuces.
“At least I’m still in the tournament,” Li said. “I still can smile.”
Cibulkova defeated eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2, and Li said she wouldn’t be taking anything for granted against the Slovak.
“Last win (against her) doesn’t mean anything because I see she played well here. For me it’s always a tough match to play against her.”
Jelena Jankovic ended her skid against Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki to set up a quarter-final meeting with second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
Jankovic, seeded seventh, defeated 10th-seeded Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1 in a battle of former world No 1s.
In a rematch of the 2010 final in the California desert won by Jankovic, the seventh-seeded Serbian showed no signs of the back trouble that required several visits from the trainer during her third-round victory over Magdalena Rybarikova on Sunday.
“Yesterday I was a little bit scared,” Jankovic said of the pain that began when she wrenched her back on a point early in the match against Rybarikova.
“If I had to play yesterday, I probably wouldn’t be able to go on court.”
Since her 2010 triumph here, Jankovic had dropped five straight decisions to Wozniacki.
Radwanska advanced with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over France's Alize Cornet, who lost the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship to Venus Williams.
Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi, who shocked defending champion Maria Sharapova in the third round, couldn’t maintain her momentum, falling 6-2, 6-1 to compatriot Flavia Pennetta.
Sixth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep reached the last eight with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 victory over rising Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard.
Halep will face Australian qualifier Casey Dellacqua, who advanced on a walkover when American Lauren Davis withdrew with a stomach ailment.
Davis’ compatriot Sloane Stephens, the 17th seed in the tournament, moved on with a straight-sets victory over Alisa Kleybanova.
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