Federer and Halep avoid carnage

Day Five was a happy one for Simona Halep (1) and Karolina Pliskova (5) at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Not just because they had wins (hard fought though they each were) but due to all remaining seeds in their half of the draw dropping like flies.

Simona won’t need to play Kiki Mladenovic (14) in the round of sixteen thanks to Qiang Wang eliminating the French player smartly 6-1 6-2.

Nor will her quarter final opponent be Jelena Ostapenko (6), who was shown the exit gate by Petra Martic 6-3 6-3.

Karolina was no doubt dreading a fourth round encounter with her fellow Czech mate Petra Kvitova (9), but she can sleep a little easier, knowing that Petra has left courtesy of 16 year old American revelation wildcard Amanda Anisimova 6-2 6-4.

Maria Sakkari had shifted Ash Barty (16), the seeded round of sixteen opponent for Karolina, out of contention in the second round.

On Day Five she knocked out Coco Vandeweghe (17), who had assumed the likely fourth round meeting with Pliskova from Barty.

Of course the expected quarter final between Karolina and Garbine Muguruza (3) was thrown out the window with the Spaniard’s loss to qualifier Sachia Vickery.

The wash up sees the following round of sixteen line up in the top half of the draw:

Simona Halep (1) v Qiang Wang

Halep showed her renowned grit and determination in coming back f1-6 against hugely impressive wildcard Caroline Dolehide to win 1-6 7-6(3) 6-2

Marketa Vondrousova v Petra Martic 

Naomi Osaka v Maria Sakkari 

Wildcard Amanda Anisimova v Karolina Pliskova (5)

Pliskova took three sets and two and a half hours to finally shake off Shuai Zhang (32) 7-5 5-7 6-3

There were also some surprises in the men’s draw on Day Five.

The completion of second round matches, with seeds taking the court for the first time, came with highly valued casualties:

Qualifier Yuki Bhambri, ranked 110, defeated Lucas Pouille (9) 6-4 6-4

Qualifier Marcos Baghdatis, ranked 102, defeated Diego Schwartzman (14) 7-5 6-4

Lucky loser in qualifying Dudi Sela, ranked 97, defeated Kyle Edmund (21) 6-4 6-4

João Sousa, ranked 85, defeated Sascha Zverev (4) 7-5 5-7 6-4

Qualifier Taro Daniel, ranked 109, defeated Novak Djokovic (10) 7-6(3) 4-6 6-1

Gael Monfils defeated John Isner (15) 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 7-5

Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated Gilles Muller (24) 6-3 7-

Roger Federer (1), Marin Cilic (2), Juan Martin del Potro (6), and Jack Sock (8) all won through to the third round.