Defending champion Rafael Nadal dumped American teenager Donald Young 6-1, 6-3 on Monday to reach the last 16 at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, where he's won eight straight matches without dropping a set.
A sterner test for the Spaniard will come in the fourth round against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who upset Nadal in the Australian Open semifinals.
Two days after hitting no aces, Tsonga racked 15 and broke French countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu in the last game to win 7-6 (5), 6-4.
"In Australia I had a tough loss but I'm going to try and improve this time," Nadal said. "It's going to be important to serve well because he's strong in his serve, and from the baseline try to play a little bit more aggressive than in Australia."
Also through were women's top seed Ana Ivanovic, former two-time champ Lindsay Davenport and third-seeded Jelena Jankovic.
In late men's matches, third-seeded Novak Djokovic downed No. 27 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-2, No. 16 Guillermo Canas rallied to beat fellow Argentine Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2 and South Korean Lee Hyung-taik upset fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3).
Earlier, eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet hammered Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 and will next meet ninth-seeded James Blake, who downed Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 and evened their career matchups at 6-6.
Also, Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland dispatched Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-0 in their first meeting.
In women's play, favored Serbs Ivanovic and Jankovic won in straight sets.
Ivanovic struggled to close out Italy's Tathiana Garbin at the end of a 44-minute first set, then rolled on to a 6-3, 6-0 win to reach the fourth round for a third straight year.
Jankovic routed veteran Ai Sugiyama 6-1, 6-1.
"I was very focused on the court, and I really tried to do my job out there," Jankovic said. "I didn't want to let her get into the match, so I was just playing one point at a time. Especially with the wind you really have to."
Jankovic has reached the quarterfinals or better in her previous five tournaments this year, and will next face Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, who rallied from 5-0 down in the second set to defeat Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina 6-3, 7-5.
Davenport overcame six service breaks, 48 unforced errors and nine double faults to beat Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.
"I'm happy to walk off the court playing the way I did the last four games and taking back control," Davenport said. "I was just getting so frustrated in the second set. Next time hopefully I can keep my cool a little better."
Davenport, who has reached the final six times here, lined up a fourth-round match with sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli, who struggled past Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (3).
In other third-round matches, Vera Zvonareva beat Galina Voskoboeva 6-0, 6-3 in an all-Russian match, Francesca Schiavone ran her record against fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta to 4-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 win, and Casey Dellacqua of Australia matched her surprising Australian Open performance by making the fourth round when Tamira Paszek of Austria retired ill while losing 6-1, 4-0.
Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies
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