Roddick, Murray move into fourth round with straight set victories at Indian Wells

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Roddick, Murray advance at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Andy Roddick defeated Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open along with Andy Murray, while second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the women’s quarterfinals.

Roddick, a semifinalist here last year, improved his record to 17-3 this season, all on hardcourts. He had an easier time with de Bakker than their first meeting, a three-set win at the Australian Open in January.

Roddick served 10 aces and saved the only service break he faced in the first set of a match played in nearly 90-degree heat.

“The points he was winning he was either having to play a pretty high risk shot, maybe go for a winner, or he was having to go deep into rallies,” Roddick said. “So if you do that over the course of a match, you normally like your chances.”

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.”

No. 4 Murray served seven aces and was broken just once in defeating American Michael Russell 6-3, 7-5. At 31, Russell was the oldest player remaining in the men’s field.

“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.”

James Blake joined Russell as another sidelined American, losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to Nicolas Almagro of Spain. Roddick and John Isner are the lone U.S. men left, with Isner facing a tough match against No. 3 Rafael Nadal on Wednesday.

In fourth-round women’s play, No. 4 Elena Dementieva beat No. 19 Aravane Rezai of France 6-3 6-3, sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic routed No. 17 Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-2, and No. 8 Samantha Stosur defeated defending champion Vera Zvonareva 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 16th-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.”

The Dane will play Jie Zheng of China, who defeated Alicia Molik, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (1).

Wozniacki is the highest seeded woman left, with No. 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 Marion Bartoli, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the quarters for the third consecutive year. Radwanska and Stosur are the only remaining female players who have yet to drop a set.

Other men’s winners included No. 8 Robin Soderling, No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tommy Robredo.