Novak Djokovic reaches Indian Wells fourth round

Image source, AP

Novak Djokovic survived a second-set blip against Alejandro Gonzalez to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Serbia's second seed won 6-1 3-6 6-1 against the 25-year-old world number 91 from Colombia.

Djokovic, 26, will next meet Croatia's Marin Cilic, 25, who beat 16th seed Tommy Robredo, 31, of Spain 6-4 6-3.

Elsewhere, eighth seed Richard Gasquet, 27, of France lost 7-6 6-1 to Spain's 30th seed Fernando Verdasco, 30.

Djokovic was cruising towards victory before losing his serve to trail 5-3 in the second set. Gonzalez quickly levelled the match but the world number two broke in the second game of the third set and powered home.

In January, the six-time Grand Slam champion missed out on a fourth straight Australian Open title with a quarter-final loss to eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka, and he fell to Roger Federer in the semi-finals in Dubai in his only other tournament this year.

Latvian Ernests Gulbis beat 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov 2-6 6-1 7-5, while American John Isner defeated Yen-Hsun Lu 6-4 6-4.

Roberto Bautista Agut and Feliciano Lopez are also through.

Britain's Andy Murray plays his fourth round match against Canadian Milos Raonic on Wednesday at 18:00 GMT.

In the women's event in California, Serbia's Jelena Jankovic beat fellow former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-3 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals.

She will play second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated France's Alize Cornet 7-5 6-3.

Top seed Li Na will play Dominika Cibulkova in a rematch of the Australian Open final after beating Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1 6-4.

Cibulkova, the number 12 seed, saved five break points in defeating Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-2.

Sloane Stephens, who beat Alisa Kleybanova 6-3 7-5, will play Flavia Pennetta, victor against fellow Italian and qualifier Camila Giorgi 6-2 6-1.

Romania's sixth seed Simona Halep also made it to the last eight with a 6-2 1-6 6-4 win against Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.

Halep's next match will be against the Australian qualifier Casey Dellacqua, who got a walkover after American Lauren Davis retired through illness.

Britain's Dominic Inglot and his Filipino partner Treat Huey lost in the men's doubles quarter-finals to second seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares 7-6 6-7 10-7.