Defending champions Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki eased through their openers in the California desert while fourth seed Andy Murray bit the dust for the second straight year.
Djokovic has not made the same perfect start to the season as he did in 2011, but defeated Andrey Golubev in his first match of the ATP/WTA Indian Wells Tournament for the second time in as many years on Saturday.
He easily beat the Kazakh qualifier 6-3, 6-2 in a 62-minute match — two minutes longer than he took last year, when he went on to capture his second Indian Wells title.
“It was a good start,” the Serb said. “We didn’t play a beautiful match. There were a lot of unforced errors but it was the opening match and I am still trying to adjust to this court and get used to the conditions. Hopefully the next match will be better.”
Murray failed to advance past his opening Indian Wells match for the second year in a row, losing 6-4, 6-2 to unseeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Murray, who was ousted by American Donald Young last year, made 34 unforced errors compared to just 16 for world number 92 Garcia-Lopez in the one hour, 40 minute night match.
“I squandered so many chances,” Murray said. “I was missing returns, had break points and that was it.
“He made me run. He made me pay. I had lots of forehands banging on the line on big points.”
World number one Djokovic, who came into Indian Wells last year riding a win streak that he eventually stretched to 41 matches, is now 11-1 this season.
The lone blemish on his record is a defeat in the Dubai semi-finals last week to Murray.
But Djokovic, who won his fifth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, will not have to worry about Murray this time around.
Djokovic broke Golubev to go up 5-2 in the second set, winning the game when his shot struck the net cord and dribbled over to the other side, after Golubev had double faulted three times in the game.
That allowed Djokovic to serve for the match and he clinched the victory on his second match point when Golubev failed to return the Serb’s first serve in front of about 6,000 spectators at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Djokovic advanced to the third round, where he will face South African Kevin Anderson, who won his second round match in a walkover when German Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew.
Both Indian Wells defending champions advanced in straight sets on Saturday as Wozniacki of Denmark kick-started her bid to become just the second woman to win back-to-back titles at the tournament.
Wozniacki broke Ekaterina Makarova of Russia in every service game to post a 6-2, 6-0 win.
“I don’t like to be out there for too long if I don’t have to,” Wozniacki said. “I love grinding it out, but if I have the opportunity to finish it off fast, I like that.”
Fourth-seeded Wozniacki advances to the third round, where she will face top Swede Sofia Arvidsson, who beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 6-3.
Two other women’s top seeds advanced as sixth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur and second seed Maria Sharapova cruised through their opening matches.
