Sportmaster International

Indian Wells, California - Number two Rafael Nadal and third seed Novak Djokovic reached the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters, paving the way for top seed Roger Federer to join them later Wednesday.

Federer, a three-time champion who lost in the second round to Guillermo Coria last year, was facing off against Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, whom he has beaten 10 times on hardcourt. Nadal won a grudge battle with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, beating the Australian Open finalist 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5. Djokovic, last year’s losing

finalist to the Spaniard, had an easier time over Guillermo Canas 6-2, 6-3. ‘It was not revenge, not a special match, but this was an important win for me,’ said Nadal. ‘He’s going to be one of the rivals for this year. ‘These matches are very important always.’ A three-hour, three-minute struggle with a comeback from 5-2 down in the final set brought Nadal full circle over Tsonga after losing a Melbourne semi-final to the breakout Frenchman two months ago. Tsonga served for victory leading 5-3 in the final set, a double- fault and a forehand unforced error to lose the game keeping Nadal in the chase. Another break of Tsonga for 6-5 put the three-time Roland Garros winner in the driving seat, with Nadal closing out the tight victory on the first of three match points a game later. ‘The ball and the court is a little bit different here,’ said Nadal. ‘There’s a lot more topspin than in Australia, so that helped me a little bit. ‘I played better today than in Australia, but the conditions are better here for me.’ Tsonga’s 47 winners went for naught as Nadal broke four times in a comeback battle. ‘Today, if I played like the last time I would have won in two sets for sure,’ said Tsonga. ‘Today it was more difficult for me because my game in the backcourt was not very good. ‘It was very difficult to play and that’s it. ‘I wanted to show everybody my run in the Australian Open was not lucky. I want to prove to everybody I can play at this level. I’m disappointed about this.’ Argentine seventh seed David Nalbandian reached the last eight as he dispatched Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 6-2. Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. Resurgent German Tommy Haas stunned Scot Andy Murray, seeded 11th, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. Women’s second Svetlana Kuznetsova booked the first of the semi- final spots over Polish 10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4. The Russian has lost only one set so far during the event. ‘I played better first set, but in the second she played a little bit better, and I missed few,’ said the winner. ‘Im confident playing out there. It was good win for me after playing her in Australian Open (third round loss).’