Sharapova and Nadal knocked out

Defending champions Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal are dumped out in the third round the Indian Wells Masters.

Maria Sharapova committed 58 errors in her loss to Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi [Reuters]

Defending champions Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova were upset in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Nadal lost 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) to Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine on the main stadium court.

They slugged it out from the baseline accompanied by a noisy soundtrack, with fans yelling and cheering.

It's good to make some results and make the people forget a little bit and have some happy moments in the news.

by Alexandr Dolgopolov, Ukrainian tennis player

Nadal led 4-2 in the final set before Dolgopolov won three straight games to take a 5-4 lead.

The Ukrainian hit two forehand winners and came up with a big service winner.

“I had enough breaks to win the match, but I didn’t play enough well from the baseline,” Nadal said.

Nadal evened it at five-all, but he hit the ball long to set up match point.

Dolgopolov produced a cross-court forehand that the world’s top-ranked player could not return.

“It’s a moment for people to be proud for someone from their country,” Dolgopolov said, referring to the political upheaval going on between Ukraine and Russia.

“It’s good to make some results and make the people forget a little bit and have some happy moments in the news.”

The Ukrainian has risen quickly in the ATP Tour rankings, going from 57th to 31st after a strong February, posting three wins against top-20 players in Rio and made the semifinals in Acapulco.

On the same court, Maria Sharapova committed 58 errors in her 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 loss to Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi.

“She’s someone that doesn’t give you much rhythm,” Sharapova said. “If I’m speaking about my level, it was nowhere near where it should have been.”

Ranked 79th in the world, Giorgi made it through qualifying to play Indian Wells for the first time.

Giorgi broke Sharapova at love before serving out the match, overcoming her 11th double fault to set up match point.

Awaiting Giorgi in the fourth round will be fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta, who beat 16th-seed Sam Stosur 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Top-seed Li Na defeated Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4, while American Sloane Stephens beat 11th-seed Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (3), 6-4.

In the men’s draw, Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka routed 29th-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-0, 6-2.

Andy Murray outclassed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in his second straight three-set match, and four-time tournament champion Roger Federer defeated 27th-seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2) with an ace on match point.

Source: AP