Even with his surgically repaired back still nowhere near perfect, defending champion Andy Murray needed only 73 minutes to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-1 at the Sony Open on Tuesday and set up a quarterfinal with Novak Djokovic.
The second-seeded Djokovic even gave back a point in the second set. A groundstroke from Robredo clipped the baseline and Djokovic couldn’t handle it, but the ball was erroneously called out. After a review showed the ball was in, the point was ordered to be replayed.
Djokovic shouted “It’s OK, it’s OK” as the fans applauded his sportsmanship.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal downed 14th-seeded Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2. Nadal has dropped a total of nine games in six sets so far in this tournament.
Singles players with a combined 66 Grand Slam victories were in action on Tuesday, including Roger Federer a winner of 17 of them himself. And he looked very much like the Federer of old, needing only 49 minutes to beat ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-2.
Federer, the No. 5 seed, had 25 winners to Gasquet’s eight, converted five of his six break chances and won 92 percent of his first-serve points in the second set. Next up for Federer is 20th-seeded Kei Nishikori, who upset No. 4 David Ferrer 7-6 (7), 2-6, 7-6 (9).
Ferrer had beaten Nishikori in the same round at Key Biscayne a year ago, their most recent meeting before Tuesday. No. 22 Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine also pulled off an upset, topping third-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals.
The last American in the men’s draw was ousted when 10th-seeded John Isner lost to No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5.
On the women’s side, Maria Sharapova rallied from a break down in the first set to oust Petra Kvitova 7-5, 6-1 and earn a spot in the semi-finals. She’s been a finalist at Key Biscayne five times, but never the champion.
The fourth-seeded Sharapova, who needed three-setters to get through her two most recent matches at Key Biscayne, feasted on 30 unforced errors by the eighth-seeded Kvitova. Sharapova won 11 of the final 13 games and moved into a semi-final matchup with Serena Williams, the defending champion who won 62 of 100 points in her 6-2, 6-2 romp over fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber.
Williams broke Kerber twice in each set, faced only one break point and held a more than 2-to-1 advantage in winners.
Also, former No. 1 Martina Hingis teamed with Sabine Lisicki to reach the doubles quarterfinals.
