Tennis: Sixth seed Stosur ousted at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS: Playing for the first time since their epic three hour, 16 minute match at the US Open, Nadia Petrova outlasted Samantha Stosur in another three-set marathon at the Indian Wells tennis Sunday.

This time Petrova won on the third match point but she needed two hours, 46 minutes to defeat sixth seeded Stosur of Australia 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5) in the third round of the hardcourt tournament.

On the men's side of the draw, top seed Novak Djokovic rolled over Kevin Anderson of South Africa in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 in their third round center court match.

Djokovic advances to the fourth round where he will play Spaniard Pablo Andujar who beat Albert Ramos 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

Stosur, who beat Petrova at the US Open before going on to win her first grand slam title, has lost five of seven career matches to the world No. 33 Petrova dating back to their first meeting at the 2004 US Open.

Stosur struggled on her serve making six double faults and winning just 43 percent of her second-serve points in the two hour, 46 minute marathon.

Petrova hammered 15 aces and posted a 71 percent winning total on her first-serve points.

Petrova was broken in the 11th game of the third set, but broke back in the next game to send it to a tiebreaker. She celebrated the victory when Stosur hit a forehand wide on the second match point of the tiebreaker.

Petrova also had a match point in the second set tiebreaker but failed to close the deal when Stosur hit a service winner.

Just six months ago Stosur, of the Gold Coast, became the first Australian woman to win a Grand Slam since 1980 when she captured the final major of the year in New York.

In other matches Monday, France's Marion Bartoli beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-2, 6-0 and Lucie Safarova advanced when Italy's Francesca Schiavone retired from their match after the first set with a virus. Schiavone was behind 6-2 when she pulled out.

American 11th seed John Isner defeated Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets 7-5, 7-5 and Gilles Simon of France beat Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4. (AFP)