On Day Four of the BNP Paribas Open, the American men all celebrated in victory. And, of course, so did that one Serb.
BNP Paribas Open 2012 Day 4 Results: The American Men Advance, Oh, And Novak Djokovic Too
Americans Andy Roddick (30 seed), Ryan Harrison, John Isner (11 seed) and Mardy Fish (8 seed) all won to advance at Indian Wells. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic also won with a convincing score of 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and 20 minute match.
Harrison and Isner won in straight sets. Harrison’s final score, which knocked off the tournament’s No. 25 seed, was 7-6 (5), 6-3. Isner’s match lasted one hour and 18 minutes, and the American knocked 14 aces for his 7-5, 6-3 win.
Fish knocked nine aces during the first set and a half before his opponent, Andreas Seppi of Italy, retired just 50 minutes into the match with the score at 3-2 in Fish’s favor in the second.
Then there’s Roddick. The 30-year-old has struggled in the first three months of this season with a hamstring injury that caused him to withdraw from the Australian Open. Of course, the form he had in 2003 when he won a U.S. Open hasn’t been seen since, well, 2003, but Roddick struggled to hang on at points in his three-set victory over Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. Roddick dropped the opening set and then squeaked by in a tiebreaker during the second before giving himself a bit easier of a time in the third set. The final score was 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Roddick will face Thomas Berdych, the tournament’s No. 7 seed, in the next round. Harrison faces No. 25 seeded Viktor Troicki and Isner faces No. 22 seed Juan Monaco. Fish plays qualifier Matthew Ebden.
On the women’s side:
No. 4 seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 2 seeded Maria Sharapova and No. 6 seeded Sam Stosur all advanced.
Notable matches for Day 5 (seeds in bold):
Marinko Matosevic (AUS) vs Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP)
Victoria Azarenka (BLR ) vs Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs Michael Llodra (FRA)
Denis Kudla (USA) vs Roger Federer (SUI)
UPDATE
A failure to convert on seven break points and 34 unforced errors were just a few things that went wrong for Andy Murray. The No. 4 seed also lost his match 6-4, 6-2 to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.
From the AP:
“I’m not exactly sure why that happened tonight,” Murray said. “I played well in practice. I was hitting the ball really well and I felt pretty fresh. I didn’t move my best tonight, but it didn’t feel like I was moving really badly. My return let me down, and he hardly missed the ball.
“There was obviously a reason behind why I didn’t play well and I’ll find that reason and address it.”
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