Novak Djokovic and British No1 Kyle Edmund suffered disappointing defeats at Indian Wells on Sunday.
Djokovic was beaten 6-7, 6-4, 1-6 by world No109, Taro Daniel, who had made the main draw as a qualifier.
Both Djokovic and Edmund were making their first appearances since the Australian Open. Djokovic pulled out in Melbourne through injury while Edmund reached the semi-finals.
Edmund, who has been out of action with a hip injury since his brilliant performance in Melbourne, led Israel’s Dudi Sela 3-1 in the opening set and had two break points to go further ahead. However, world No97 Sela dug deep to hold serve and immediately broke Edmund to get back on level terms before another break in the 10th game secured the set.
Sela also took the second set by the same score to seal a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 91 minutes against world No24 Edmund, who replaced the injured Andy Murray as British No1 earlier this month.
It's hard not to think that this result was more about what Djokovic did to himself.
After losing to Hyeon Chung in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Djokovic took some time to get himself healthy. But while he may be revitalized physically, as far as we know, the former No. 1 showed plenty of rust in his tour return, which was central to the outcome.
It was clear early that Djokovic didn't have anything close to his best game, in spite of holding a 5-2 lead in the first set. His backhand, traditionally his most consistent and game-breaking weapon, bled errors—32 in all. With his go-to stroke a sudden liability, the rest of his game fell apart. The 30-year-old committed 61 unforced errors in the two-and-a-half hour match.
The Serb failed to serve out the first set, growing the internal seed of doubt and emboldening Daniel, who at last year's US Open took a set from eventual champion Rafael Daniel. Playing aggressively and making Djokovic move, Daniel would quickly erase the deficit and would end up taking the first set in a tiebreaker.
Djokovic rebounded to level the match, but the taxing second set left the No. 10 seed looking worse for wear. Once the third set began, it didn't take long for most observers to realize that it was Daniel's match to lose. Not only was Djokovic seemingly missing everything at that point, but he looked gassed. The combination led to a quick and drama-free conclusion.
"I just completely lost rhythm, everything," a candid Djokovic told press. "Just didn't feel good at all, nerves were there. Just one of those days when you're not able to find the rhythm from the baseline, especially the backhand side."
"You're still battling inside of your mind," he added, referencing his recent elbow surgery. "You don't have pain, but you're still thinking about it."
For Daniel, a third-round meeting with world No. 47 Leonardo Mayer awaits. Mayer was supposed to play Kei Nishikori in his second-round match, but the former US Open finalist withdrew from the tournament due to illness. Mayer would instead play lucky loser Ruben Bemelmans—who he defeated, 6-4, 6-1, in just over an hour.
Djokovic, meanwhile, is scheduled to compete in the Miami Open in just over a week. He has won the hard-court Masters event six times in his career, but given what we saw today, it's hard to imagine another deep run. If he can't clean up a shot that was once his most reliable, nothing is a given right now.
Roger Federer tops Delbonis in match that started Saturday and finished Sunday
Roger Federer’s first match at Indian Wells was expected to last maybe 2 hours. Instead, it took 20 hours before a winner was decided.
But after his second-round match against Federico Delbonis which started at 8 p.m. Saturday night was halted due to rain with Federer up 6-3, 2-2, the match resumed Sunday and ended at about 4 p.m. with Federer winning 6-3, 7-6.
Delbonis actually had a set point during the tiebreaker in the second set, but Federer thwarted off the threat and went on to win.
Saturday marked the first time in more than a decade that matches at the tournament were postponed a day. Rain has caused delays since, most recently in 2016, but those delays were relatively short and matches resumed the same day.
Federer’s match was not the only one postponed by a persistent rain Saturday evening. The 10th seed in the women’s draw.
The nightcap match on Stadium Court was also postponed for the night. American Sloane Stephens, the 13th seed in the women’s draw, was scheduled to play two-time BNP Paribas Open champion Victoria Azarenka following the Federer-Delbonis match in Stadium 1. The two instead played Sunday afternoon and Stephens looked very sharp in dispatching Azarenka 6-1, 7-5.
Other matches
Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion who lost to Federer in the final of this year's Australian Open, eased to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Marton Fucsovics.
Gael Monfils upset No. 15 seed and 2012 runner-up John Isner 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-5.
Other seeded players who lost were ninth-seeded Lucas Pouille, who fell 6-4, 6-4 to Yuki Bhambri; 14th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, 7-5, 6-4 to Marcos Baghdatis; 21st-seeded Kyle Edmund, 6-4, 6-4 to Dudi Sela; and No. 24 seed Giles Muller, 6-3, 7-5 to Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
On the women's side, top-ranked Simona Halep came back to top 19-year-old Caroline Dolehide 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in just over two hours.
American Amanda Anisimova took down two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-4 in a match lasting just over an hour to become the first 16-year-old to move into the fourth round at Indian Wells since Viktoriya Kutuzova in 2005.
"It feels crazy. I mean, I'm still in shock," Anisimova said. "She's the best player I have ever played, and it was the biggest court I have ever played on. So it was definitely nerve-wracking kind of, but I was enjoying it so much out there and I was playing my best. It was a good day."
Former No. 1 and tenth-seed Angelique Kerber rallied past Ekaterina Makarova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and Petra Martic upset last year's French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3.
Dudi Sela, Israel, def. Kyle Edmund (21), Britain, 6-4, 6-4.
Philipp Kohlschreiber (31), Germany, def. Tim Smyczek, United States, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert, France, def. Gilles Muller (24), Luxembourg, 6-3, 7-5.
David Ferrer (29), Spain, def. Tennys Sandgren, United States, 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Feliciano Lopez (28), Spain, def. Ernesto Escobedo, United States, 6-4, 6-3.
Gael Monfils, France, def. John Isner (15), United States, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-5.
Taro Daniel, Japan, def. Novak Djokovic (10), Serbia, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1.
Yuki Bhambri, India, def. Lucas Pouille (9), France, 6-4, 6-4.
Leonardo Mayer, Argentina, def. Kei Nishikori (22), Japan, 6-4, 6-1.
Roger Federer (1), Switzerland, def. Federico Delbonis, Argentina, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Marin Cilic (2), Croatia, def. Marton Fucsovics, Hungary, 7-5, 6-3.
Sam Querrey (18), United States, def. Mischa Zverev, Germany, 6-4, 7-5.
Jack Sock (8), United States, def. Thomas Fabbiano, Italy, 6-2, 7-5.
Milos Raonic (32), Canada, def. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada, 6-4, 6-4.
Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, def. Diego Schwartzman (14), Argentina, 7-5, 6-4.
Juan Martin del Potro (6), Argentina, def. Alex de Minaur, Australia, 6-2, 6-1.
Joao Sousa, Portugal, def. Alexander Zverev (4), Germany, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
Sloane Stephens (13), United States, def. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 6-1, 7-5.
Angelique Kerber (10), Germany, def. Ekaterina Makarova, Russia, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Amanda Anisimova, United States, def. Petra Kvitova (9), Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-4.
Marketa Vondrousova, Czech Republic, def. Aryna Sabalenka, Belarus, 6-2, 6-2.
Karolina Pliskova (5), Czech Republic, def. Zhang Shuai (32), China, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
Petra Martic, Croatia, def. Jelena Ostapenko (6), Latvia, 6-3, 6-3.
Simona Halep (1), Romania, def. Caroline Dolehide, United States, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Wang Qiang, China, def. Kristina Mladenovic (14), France, 6-1, 6-2.
Maria Sakkari, Greece, def. CoCo Vandeweghe (17), United States, 6-2, 6-4.
Naomi Osaka, Japan, def. Sachia Vickery, United States, 6-3, 6-3.
Jean-Julien Rojer, Netherlands, and Horia Tecau (6), Romania, def. Ryan Harrison, United States, and Max Mirnyi, Belarus, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Fabio Fognini, Italy, and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, Pakistan, def. Nikola Mektic, Croatia, and Alexander Peya, Austria, 2-6, 6-3, 10-5.
Pablo Cuevas, Uruguay, and Horacio Zeballos, Argentina, def. Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico, and Nicholas Monroe, United States, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 10-2.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut (5), France, def. Damie Dzumhur, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Filip Krajinovic, Serbia, 6-1, 6-2.
Roberto Baustista Agut and David Ferrer, Spain, def. Lukasz Kubot, Poland, and Marcelo Melo (1), Brazil, 6-4, 6-4.
Lara Arruabarrena and Arantxa Parra Santonja, Spain, def. Elise Mertens, Belgium, and Demi Schuurs, Netherlands, 6-7 (2), 6-2, 10-7.
Monica Niculescu, Romania, and Andrea Sestini Hlavackova, Czech Republic, def. Shuko Aoyama, Japan, and Yang Zhaoxuan, China, 6-2, 7-5.
Vania King, United States, and Katarina Srebotnik, Slovenia, def. Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (6), Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5.