Novak Djokovic Falls In Indian Wells
18 March 2010
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Novak Djokovic was sent crashing out of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, losing in straight set to Ivan Ljubicic.
The Serb, and second seed, has had erratic form for the entire tournament as he struggled to live with the Ljubicic game.
The Indian Wells tournament has now lost it's top two seeds after Roger Federer crashed out earlier in the week.
It was just the second win for the Croat in seven meeting with Djokovic as he delivered thirteen aces in his straight sets win.
The opening set was a close affair but the solitary break was enough to give Ljubicic the lead. Into the second and the Croat continued to play well as Djokovic struggled.
The world number two was broken in the sixth game of the second before going on to clinch the match 7-5 6-3.
Speaking to the BBC after the match Djokovic said: "I had a lot of opportunities and I didn't use many of them," said the Serb after converting only two of five break point chances.
"My execution was very bad and he played well when he needed to.
"I am not happy with the overall performance that I had in this tournament, because I know I could have played better and could have done better.
"But under decent circumstances I still made it to the fourth round, which is quite OK."
But there was no such trouble for fourth seed Andy Murray as he progressed into the quarter finals when Nicolas Almagro withdrew with an ankle injury.
It looked like it was going to be a promising match as Almagro broke Murray early on, the Scot had struggled with his serve in the later part of his round of sixteen match.
However the break was short lived as Murray broke straight back in the next game to level the set.
Murray took the opening set 6-2 and Almagro called for the trainer for treatment to his ankle at the end of the first.
But after just one game in the second set Almagro decided to stop play, allowing Murray to progress to the quarter finals.
He will now face sixth seed Robin Soderling who defeated Jo Wilfred Tsonga 6-3 6-4.
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