Indian Wells: Djokovic, Murray Land In 3rd Round

Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic and third seed Andy Murray both had to work much harder than expected to book their places in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open yesterday.

Top seed Djokovic lost his bearings in the second set before beating Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-0 5-7 6-2 while Murray had to dig himself out of an early hole on the way to a 5-7 6-2 6-2 win against Russian Evgeny Donskoy.

“It was definitely a difficult challenge today,” Serbian Djokovic said courtside after breaking the feisty Fognini in the fourth and eighth games of the third set to claim victory.

“Fabio played very well towards the end of the second set but it was all my fault,” said the world number one, who squandered one match point in the 10th game of that set before being broken in the 11th when he netted a forehand.

“I had a very bad game at 4-2, made a couple of unforced errors, and got him back in the match. Next thing you know we’re one set all and a couple of tight games. I’m just happy to get through.”