Djokovic Records 550th Career Win at Indian Wells
Novak Djokovic recorded his 550th career victory Sunday night in Indian Wells, Calif. at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating Victor Hanescu 7-6(1), 6-2 to advance to round three. With the win, Djokovic became the sixth active player to reach the 550 wins, behind Roger Federer (938), Rafael Nadal (674), Lleyton Hewitt (599), David Ferrer (565) and Tommy Haas (554).
In round three, Djokovic will meet Alejandro Gonzalez, a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5) winner over Ivan Dodig.
Also in Indian Wells, Ernests Gulbis and Grigor Dimitrov will meet for the third time in four weeks, after both players advanced to round three, as Gulbis was victorious over Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-3, and Dimitrov with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Robin Haase. Gulbis won their first FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter in the Rotterdam in the second round, and Dimitrov avenged the loss in a quarterfinal battle last week in Acapulco. Dimitrov went on to claim the Acapulco title.
World number 53 Roberto Bautista Agut was an upset winner over the fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round, marking Berdych’s first opening round loss since 2009 when he fell to Philipp Kohlschreiber in Montreal.
The aforementioned Kohlschreiber dropped his second straight match since reaching the 300-win plateau in Tour-level matches, this time in Indian Wells, 6-2, 6-2 to Yen-hsun Lu in just 68 minutes. Lu will next face American John Isner, a 7-6(5), 6-3 winner over Nikolay Davydenko.
