Camila Giorgi claimed an upset win over defending champion Maria Sharapova 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday, giving the young Italian her first victory over a top-five player.
"She's
someone that doesn't give you much rhythm," Sharapova said. "She's
quite aggressive, but some shots she hits incredible for a long period of time.
Sometimes they go off a bit. If I'm speaking about my level, it was nowhere
near where it should have been."
Ranked
79th in the world, Giorgi 4-2 in the final set, but Sharapova twice to level it
at 5-5.
Giorgi,
22, then broke Sharapova at love before serving out the match, overcoming her
11th double fault to set up match point. Giorgi had 48 unforced errors and 24
winners.
With the
scores at 4-4 in the third set, Sharapova got broken on a disputed call. Her
forehand was called long and Sharapova raised her arms. The chair umpire took
the gesture to mean Sharapova was challenging the call, and the call showed the
ball was out.
Maria Sharapova, of Russia, serves to Camila Giorgi,
of Italy, during a third round match at the BNP …
Sharapova argued she was only throwing her
arms up as if to ask, "Who made the call?" But the umpire disagreed,
and Sharapova retreated to her sideline chair trailing 5-4.Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka routed 29th-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-0, 6-2.
Andy
Murray outlasted Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in his
second straight three-set match, while four-time tourney champion Roger Federer
defeated 27th-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2) with an ace on
match point.
American
Sloane Stephens was to play Ana Ivanovic, and Tommy Haas took on Kei Nishikori
of Japan in night matches.
Murray
had his hands full playing for the first time against Vesely, who at age 20 is
the youngest member of the top 100 of the ATP Tour rankings and was competing
in his first Masters 1000 event.
Andy Murray, of Great Britain, returns a hit
by Jiri Vesely, of Czech Republic, during a third round …Murray had 47 of the 99 unforced errors during the nearly three-hour match in the 80-plus-degree heat of the Southern California desert. The third set featured six service breaks, with Murray taking the last two.
"It
was that sort of match where at no stage did either of us play well at the same
time," Murray said. "There wasn't one period where I thought the
level of tennis from both of us was high at the same time. That can create a
lot of breaks and a lot of sort of back and forth swings in the match."
Vesely
staved off two match points with a pair of winners. But the Czech
double-faulted to set up Murray's third match point and he netted a forehand
volley to end his upset bid.
Federer
has regained some of the momentum that eluded him last year, when he won just
one title. Last week, he won the tournament in Dubai with victories against
Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych. At the Australian Open, the former world No.
1 earned wins over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Murray before losing to Rafael Nadal.
"I
feel different this year," Federer said. "Now I feel like I'm in a
good place. Zen on the court. Even if I won 6 and 6 today, I just feel like I
was calm. Those are the moments where you feel there is confidence around
somewhere."
Jiri Vesely, of Czech Republic, returns a volley
from Andy Murray, of Great Britain, during a third …
In the women's third round, top-seeded Li Na
defeated Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4.
Li closed
out the match with an ace, one of her 15 winners in a match in which the
Chinese star had 28 unforced errors. The Australian Open champion has never
been past the semifinals in six previous appearances at Indian Wells.
Li is
playing as the No. 1 seed in a major tournament for the first time.
"It
is different," she said. "Now is high attention; everyone is focused.
It's very tough to hang in there, especially at the beginning of the
tournament."
Trailing
4-3 in the second set, Li rallied to win the final three games and dispatch
Pliskova, who at 21 is 10 years younger than Li and was making her main draw
debut after losing in qualifying the last two years.
Li needed
a third-set tiebreaker to beat countrywoman Zheng Jie in her first match after
an opening-round bye.
Aleksandra
Wozniak of Canada defeated 21st-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1,
6-7 (3), 6-0 to set up a fourth-round match against Li.
No. 16 seed Sam
Stosur of Australia lost to 20th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
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