The biggest upset off the tournament came in the men’s draw of the Sony Open on Thursday courtesy 15th seed Tommy Haas who defeated world no.1 and two time defending champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. Fellow Serb and no.7 seed Janko Tipsarevic was another member of the top 10 who was sent packing with a loss in three sets at the hands of 11th seed Giles Simon 7-5, 2-6, 2-6. The other top players like 2nd seed Andy Murray, 3rd seed David Ferrer and 4th seed Tomas Berdych performed according to rank and moved into the quarterfinals with comfortable straight set victories.

15th seed Tommy Haas has a great CV that has a former world no. 2 position and 4 Grand Slam semi-final appearances to his credit but his career has been plagued with injuries preventing him from putting together a strong run in the last decade. Moreover, at 35 Haas is the oldest player in the top 50. With Miami being practically home turf for Djokovic, who came into their match on the back of 14 straight wins here, things did not look good for the German.

It was an especially windy day at Key Biscayne, Florida on Sunday with players finding it difficult to get a rhythm going. Even so, the top players in the men’s draw were able to carve out easy victories to move into the round of 16 at the Sony Open. Two-time defending champion and top seed Novak Djokovic led the way as he saw off India’s Somdev Devvarman 6-2, 6-4 in 68 minutes. Third seed David Ferrer and 7th seed Janko Tipsarevic, both had poor runs at Indian Wells, but were able to find form and progress into the next round with the Serb having the tougher day at the office as he rallied for a 4-6, 7-6, 6-0 victory against Kevin Anderson. Giles Simon, Kei Nishikori and Tommy Haas were the other seeds to join them in the 4th round.

Djokovic, who was facing Devvarman for the first time, was hardly troubled in his match and lost only three points on his first serve, giving him his 14th straight win at the tournament.

The second men's semi-final at Indian Wells saw 7th seed Juan Martin del Potro take on World No.1 Novak Djokovic. The Serb was on a brilliant run this year and like his historic 2011 season was on a 22 match unbeaten streak since last October. This coupled with the fact that he had defeated Delpo 4 times in a row made him the overwhelming favourite to win the match. The Argentine, on the other hand was only recently getting back to playing at his best and was plagued with inconsistent performances in the past couple of years.

The 2009 U.S Open champion found top form today, and fought back from a set down to outhit Djokovic over three sets in a grueling encounter that lasted almost three hours, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The first of the two semi-finals at Indian Wells saw 5th seed Rafal Nadal take on 6th seed Tomas Berdych, a man he had beaten the last 11 times they had played. Such was Nadal’s dominance of the Czech that Berdych said prior to the match that he actually preferred playing World no. 2 Roger Federer or World No.1 Novak Djokovic to the Spaniard. Even so, this was the best opportunity he would have to defeat the world no. 5, seeing that Nadal was still in the midst of a comeback while Berdych came here on the back of good performances at the Australian Open, Marseille and Dubai, and hadn’t lost a set in the entire tournament.

In the end, those proved to be mere statistics, as the 11 time Grand Slam champion outplayed Berdych for the better part of the match to pull off a straight set victory 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and forty-three minutes to progress into the final at the 2013 BNP Paribas Masters.

World No.1 Novak Djokovic looked a bit suspect in the opening rounds and with 8th see Jo-Wilfried Tsonga playing some exceptional tennis this week, their quarter-final match at the BNP Paribas Maters looked set to go either way. It was not to be though as Djokovic put paid to his critics and proved why he is the best player in the world with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of the Frenchman in just 54 minutes. Djokovic will face 7th seed Juan Martin del Potro in the semi-finals of Indian Wells on Saturday. Del Potro fought back from a set down in the last of the men’s quarterfinals to pull off an upset against 3rd seed Andy Murray 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 in just over 2½ hours.

The Djokovic-Tsonga match got off to a good start with the Serb finding his mojo almost immediately. Tsonga, too was striking the ball well in the early exchanges. However, in a bid to outdo the champion and hit winners, the Frenchman committed a flurry of unforced errors to gift a break to the top seed for a 4-2 lead. The world no.8’s game continued to unravel as two games later the 6 time Grand Slam champion broke once again to claim the first set 6-3.

Two time champion at the BNP Paribas Masters, Novak Djokovic, extended his 2013 unbeaten streak to 15-0 with a victory over Grigor Dimitrov in the third round at Indian Wells, but only after battling back from a break down in the opening set. Joining him in the 4th round are 7th seed Juan Martin Del Potro and Jo Wilfried Tsonga who were also made to earn their victories by their unseeded opponents before eventually coming through in straight sets. In the day’s only upset Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the 16th seed, was sent packing by Argentine Carlos Berloq 6-2, 6-2 in 72 minutes.

World No.1 Novak Djokovic was 5-3 down in the opening set with Dimitrov serving for it, but the Bulgarian imploded and committed four double faults in the game and allowed the Serb to force proceedings into a tie break which he won on an unforced error from the 21 year old Dimitrov. The Serb dominated the second set and won it comfortably 6-1 to power into the last 16.

Top seed Novak Djokovic and No.3 seed Andy Murray both had a difficult time in their 2nd round matches on Monday and had to play long three setters before finally progressing to the next round. While Djokovic had a lapse of concentration and conceded the second set, a rusty Murray lost the opening set and then found his game in the next two. Djokovic’s semi-final opponent in Dubai, Juan Martin Del Potro did not find things quite as difficult and sent former world no.3 Nikolay Davydenko packing in straight sets quite easily.

World No.1 Novak Djokovic was stretched to three sets in his opening match against Italy’s Fabio Fognini before finally pulling through 6-0, 5-7, 6-2. The top seed came to court on top form and won 10 of the first 11 games before the Italian launched a spirited fight back to take the second set and force the match into a decider. Djokovic though had recovered his poise and won the final set with ease 6-2.