INDIAN WELLS, California (AP) ― Novak Djokovic extended his winning streak to 19 matches with a 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Fabio Fognini in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday.
Djokovic, who lost to John Isner in the semifinals here a year ago, held serve for a 5-2 lead in the final set, then had a pair of match points after a crisp forehand to the corner.
Fognini saved the first match point, but lost both his serve and the match when he hit a seemingly easy backhand into the net.
Andy Murray earlier had earned a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win over Evgeny Donskoy of Russia.
Maria Sharapova serves against Carla Suarez Navarro on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News)
Murray, the No. 3 seed at the $10 million event, had lost his opening match at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in each of the past two years.
He said he had no explanation for those results, but that he hadn’t felt any different Sunday than he had a year ago, with one exception.
“I have not played a match for five weeks (since losing the Australian Open final to Djokovic on Jan. 27) so you can’t expect to play your best tennis straightaway,” Murray said.
“He started off well and I started off slowly. Even once I got back into the match at 5-all (after being down 5-1 in the first set) he played some good stuff. Once I got into a rhythm, I was able to dictate more of the points.”
Women’s No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova followed Murray onto Stadium Court and advanced to the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
“I thought it was a tough one,” said Sharapova, whose fourth-round opponent will be Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain, who beat No. 14 Roberta Vinci of Italy 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“She’s (Suarez Navarro) a quality player. She has a really solid game, a lot of variety, but she can hit the ball as well. There are a few things I want to improve on for the next match, but I was happy I got through on not a great day.”
Also, Mardy Fish of the United States earned a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Bobby Reynolds.
Fish played his first competitive match of the year after not playing since last September because of a heart condition.
“It’s been a tough few months, for sure. You sort of feel like it was a win just to go back out there,” Fish said.