Andy Murray beat Michael Russell on Tuesday to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open along with Andy Roddick, while second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the women’s quarterfinals.
No. 4 Murray, the Australian Open finalist, served seven aces and was broken just once in a 6-3, 7-5 win over the 31-year-old American.
“I don’t think I lost my concentration necessarily on the game when I got broken, but he had break point; he had a great backhand,” Murray said. “I would have liked to have closed it out there 3 and 3, but I did well to stay composed at the end.”
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Roddick, a semifinalist here last year, served 10 aces and saved the only service break he faced in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands.
The seventh-seeded American will next play No. 22 Jurgen Melzer, who advanced when Simon Greul withdrew because of illness.
“Jurgen is always tough. He’s capable of playing a couple different ways,” Roddick said. “He was capable of coming forward, attacking, really being the aggressor, which is always a little bit uncomfortable. It’s important to hang on to your service games.”
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Other men’s winners included No. 8 Robin Soderling, No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tommy Robredo.
In fourth-round women’s play, No. 4 Elena Dementieva of Russia beat No. 19 Aravane Rezai of France 6-3 6-3, sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic routed Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-2, and No. 8 Samantha Stosur of Australia ousted defending champion Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-2, 7-5.
Top-ranked Roger Federer was to play Marcos Baghdatis in a night match.
Wozniacki advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 victory over 16{+t}{+h}-seeded Nadia Petrova, whose career record against top-five players dropped to 11-42 with the loss.
“It was a match where it just went up and down quite a bit, and I didn’t really know what to expect,” she said. “It was not really a great rhythm there. I didn’t feel the ball as well.”
She will next play China’s Zheng Jie, who defeated Australia’s Alicia Molik, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (1).
Wozniacki is the highest seeded woman left, with Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin among the big names already gone.
“I don’t feel the pressure,” she said. “I like this tournament.”
No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Radwanska and Stosur are the only remaining female players who have yet to drop a set.