INDIAN WELLS — Novak Djokovic clawed out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over 72nd-ranked American Aleksandar Kovacevic on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells for the first time since 2017.
Djokovic, playing his first tournament since falling to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open final, had all he could handle from the 27-year-old New Yorker, who peppered the Serb superstar with 16 aces.
Djokovic made an early break stand up to take the first set, but Kovacevic had found his groove and rolled through the second against a clearly frustrated Djokovic.
Djokovic regrouped in the third — finally finding the break he needed in the final game.
“I knew coming into the match that if he serves well and if he picks his spot in the box it’s going to be tough to break him,” Djokovic said.
“I wasn’t maybe feeling my rhythm on that return very well today, but he was just making my life very difficult, returning the serve.
“He was just acing me all over, getting a lot of free points.
“Today was really anybody’s game until the last couple of points. That last game in the third where he missed some first serves, gave me looks on the second and I used it. That’s pretty much it.”
With five Indian Wells titles Djokovic is tied for the record with Swiss great Roger Federer.
But the Serbian superstar hasn’t made it to the quarter-finals in the California desert since his last title run in 2016 and now he’s had to come through a pair of three-setters to return to the last 16.
He’ll face defending champion Jack Draper for a place in the quarter-finals after the Briton beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5.
Draper’s victory here last year — featuring a semi-final win over Carlos Alcaraz -- launched his rise to fourth in the world.
But he then missed the better part of six months with an arm injury and arrived in California ranked 14th, his win over Cerundolo marking the first time since June that he’s posted back-to-back ATP victories.
Cerundolo served for the second set at 5-4, but a few mistakes gave Draper an opening and the Briton broke back, saving a pair of break points in the next game before finishing it off on Cerundolo’s serve.
A pair of top-10 seeds were sent packing as Britain’s Cameron Norrie ousted eighth-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 and Aussie qualifier Rinki Hijikata 10th-ranked Alexander Bublik 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Hijikata, ranked 117th in the world, claimed his first win over a top-10 player to advance to a meeting with Norrie.
Alcaraz, riding a 13-0 match winning streak as he chases a third Indian Wells title, headlined the night session, taking on France’s Arthur Rinderknech.
The 22-year-old Spaniard’s Australian Open triumph made him the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam, and he followed up with a title in Doha in February.
Now Alcaraz is aiming to return to the winner’s circle in Indian Wells, where his bid for a third straight title last year was derailed by Draper in the semi-finals.
Andreeva dethroned
Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense, rallying for a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that ended with a shot from Siniakova that hit the net cord and dribbled over in one last frustrating moment.
The 18-year-old Russian slung her racquet as she approached the net before departing the court with a defiant gesture at the censorious crowd.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, admitted it was an awkward way to seal the win in a match that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
“Of course I’m happy it went on the other side,” she said. “I was, like, should I cheer? It’s a really tricky finish. But definitely I will not say I’m not happy.”
Siniakova said the swirling winds on Stadium Court were troubling both players.
Andreeva’s emotions had already boiled over when she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, during which each player had remarks for the chair umpire about her opponent.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games, saving two break points in the final game before gaining the win on her first match point.
Siniakova will face Elina Svitolina for a place in the quarter-finals after the ninth-seeded Ukrainian beat American Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-2.
There was no drama for world number two Iga Swiatek, who defeated Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2.
Poland’s Swiatek beat Sakkari in the final to claim both of her Indian Wells titles, in 2022, and 2024, but Sakkari had won their most recent encounter in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open last month.
Swiatek next faces Doha champion Karolina Muchova, who blew past Antonia Ruzic 6-0, 6-3.