INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) – Struggling with her serve and a rash of errors, Serena Williams overcame a slow start to beat Sloane Stephens 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday, extending her winning streak to 14 matches.
Maria Sharapova struggled mightily, too, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to defending champion Flavia Pennetta, who won her ninth straight match after becoming emotional and leaving the court in the first set.
Four-time Indian Wells champion Roger Federer defeated Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4, avenging his third-round loss to Seppi at the Australian Open.
Seppi fought off three match points on his serve to trail 5-4 in the third set. He netted a forehand to give Federer a fourth match point in the next game, and the Swiss star closed it out with a forehand winner in the corner.
Seppi’s win Down Under stopped a ten-match skid against Federer. The Italian broke Federer to tie it up 3-all in the second, but Federer broke back on a forehand winner in the next game to take a lead he never gave up.
In third round men’s play, Nadal beat Donald Young 6-4, 6-2 in a matchup of lefties.
Sixth-seeded Milos Raonic beat Alexandr Dolgopolov, 7-6 (2), 6-4; No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov lost to 17th-seeded Tommy Robredo, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5; Jack Sock upset 15th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to earn his first meeting against Federer; and No. 9 seed Tomas Berdych beat Steve Johnson, 6-4, 6-2.
No. 12 Carla Suarez Navarro beat Heather Watson 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals, where she will play third-seeded Simona Halep, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over 14th-seeded Karolina Pliskova.
Jelena Jankovic, the 2010 champion, outlasted 18-year-old Belinda Bencic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to set up a quarterfinal against qualifier Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. She beat sixth-seeded Eugenie Bouchard who had 74 unforced errors in losing 6-7 (5), 7-5 6-4.
