Serb Novak Djokovic and Argentine Guillermo Canas will go head-to-head for a spot in the Pacific Life Open quarterfinals after the two players took different paths to victory in their third round matches, Monday evening in Indian Wells.
The third-seeded Djokovic needed just 69 minutes to defeat German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-2, while No. 16 seed Canas battled to the 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-2 win against compatriot Juan Monaco in two hours and 39 minutes.
Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka and Korean Hyung-Taik Lee ensured there would be an unseeded quarterfinalist with each recording their second straight upset of a seeded player.
Wawrinka, who ousted No. 10 Tomas Berdych in the second round, followed with a 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-0 win over 18th-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The Swiss No. 2 is making his second appearance in Indian Wells, and reached the second round in his debut in 2006.
Top seed Roger Federer cruised into the third round of the Pacific Life Open with a 6-3 6-2 win over Spaniard Guillermo-Garcia Lopez.
Federer, who suffered a semi-final setback to Serbian Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, was also upset by Britain's Andrew Murray in the round of 32 at Dubai nearly two weeks ago.Awaiting the Swiss will be unseeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who ousted number 25 seed Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.
Murray also advanced to the third round with a hard-fought 3-6 6-3 6-3 victory over Jurgen Melzer of Austria.
It was a major challenge for the 11th seed, who needed nearly two hours to book his spot in the next round where he will face hard serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, the number 20 seed.
