March 16 was a great day for tennis fans at Indian Wells.  All the men played fourth round matches.

March 17?  St. Patrick’s Day?  Not so good.  Two matches were skipped, one men, one women.  On the men’s side, Tommy Robredo had sustained an injury while beating Sam Querrey.  He said he was unable to play, so Juan Martin del Potro made the semifinals without having to step foot on the court.

Nadal was the late match with Ivo Karlovic.  Karlovic didn’t play much of 2010.  He played some this year, but Indian Wells has been his best performance this year.  Karlovic played one solid game to break Nadal, and did what he does best: serve and hold.  With a 7-5 win in the first set, Nadal had a light fired, and played focused, getting a break and then getting another break and took the second set, 6-1.

Karlovic’s first serve percentage was down in the second set, leading to Nadal’s easy win (as well as Nadal seeing the ball better).  The two played even until the tiebreak.  Nadal had an early mini-break, but he gave it back.  He had another one, but gave that back too.  However, it felt as if Nadal, if he could simply play clean tennis, would edge out Karlovic, and he did.  He was thrilled with his win, but Karlovic had pushed him to the brink.

Tomorrow, Djokovic will play Gasquet and Federer will play doubles partner, Wawrinka.  The Swiss duo will then play Lopez and Nadal to reach the finals of the doubles.  Nadal and Lopez are the defending champs.