Rafael Nadal won his first match on a hard court for a year as he defeated Ryan Harrison in his opener at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The Spanish fifth seed cruised to a straight sets win as he continued his return from a knee injury. Nadal took the opening set 7-6 (7/3) and then wrapped up victory by taking the next 6-2 to make it into the third round. A two-time champion at Indian Wells, Nadal has not won a hard-court title since 2010 but since coming back from his knee problem has won twice on clay, most recently in Acapulco.
World number two Roger Federer opened his title defence with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin. Bidding for his fifth title at Indian Wells, Federer needed just 58 minutes to beat Istomin for the fourth time in as many meetings. Federer broke Istomin’s serve four times and won 32 of 36 of his service points. In the third round Federer will face Croat Ivan Dodig after he beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4 6-2. Fourth seed David Ferrer suffered a surprise early exit at the hands of Kevin Anderson. All had looked to be going to plan for the world number four from Spain when he won the first set, but the unseeded South African responded superbly to win the second-round encounter 3-6 6-4 6-3. Anderson will face Jarkko Nieminen in round three after the Finn enjoyed a comprehensive victory against another more-fancied Spaniard, trouncing 29th seed Fernando Verdasco 6-1 6-0.
