Indian Wells: Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka continued his dominance of Philipp Kohlschreiber, rolling past the German 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the fourth round of the ATP Indian Wells Masters.
Wawrinka recorded his fifth victory over Kohlschreiber in as many meetings in a performance that left him cautiously encouraged about his prospects of making it past the quarter-finals in the California desert for the first time.
“It was a really good match,” said Wawrinka, who owns three Grand Slam titles but has won just one of the tour’s coveted Masters titles.
“I think I’m moving better and better and it’s all positive so far.”
A break in each set was enough for Wawrinka, who didn’t face a break point himself as he advanced to a meeting with lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, who staged a remarkable rally to get past 13th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
The 21-year-old from Mie saved a match point against his own serve in the 10th game of the second set.
After Nishioka forced the decisive set by winning the tiebreaker, the two traded breaks to open the third before Nishioka broke for a 2-1.
Love
Although Berdych saved one match point in the ninth game, Nishioka closed it out in the next with a love game to reach the fourth round of a Masters tournament for the first time.
Wawrinka is the highest-ranked player remaining in the top half of the draw after world number one Andy Murray’s shock loss to 129th-ranked qualifier Vasek Pospisil in the second round.
With superstars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all jammed into the bottom quarter of the draw, Wawrinka’s path looks wide open.
Eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem powered into the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Mischa Zverev. World number nine Thiem, riding high after winning the ATP title in Rio in February, had little trouble from Zverev’s serve-and-volley style.
Although the German saved five match points in the ninth game of the second set, Thiem served out the victory in the next game in less than an hour.
Thiem next faces 10th-seeded Gael Monfils, who dispatched American John Isner 6-2, 6-4 in just 68 minutes.
Elsewhere, Pospisil was unable to build on the best win of his career falling to fellow qualifier Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 7-5 just two days after toppling Murray.
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