INDIAN WELLS (California), March 20: Defending champion Rafael Nadal came from a set down and 5-2 behind in the third to scrape past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 in the Pacific Life Open fourth round on Wednesday.

World No 1 Roger Federer made smooth progress to the quarter-finals, meanwhile, the three-time champion outplaying Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-4 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

In a repeat of this year’s Australian Open semi-final in which Tsonga upset Nadal, the Spaniard gained revenge by winning a fluctuating encounter in just over three hours.

The second-seeded Spaniard beat Serb Novak Djokovic in last year’s final.

Nadal won the last five games as Tsonga’s high-risk strategy ultimately backfired and he will next meet American James Blake who eased past another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, 6-4, 6-2.

The aggressive Tsonga, nicknamed Ali for his resemblance to the former world heavyweight boxing champion, ended the match with an overall tally of 47 winners and 56 unforced errors.

Third-seeded Djokovic earlier crushed Argentina’s Guillermo Canas 6-2, 6-3.

Federer was pleased to break the big-serving Ljubicic three times to complete his third straight sets win of the week.

Australian Open champion Djokovic was delighted to wrap up his match in two sets against the player who stunned Federer in the second round last year.

Germany’s Tommy Haas came from a set down to upset 11th-seeded Briton Andy Murray 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 and Argentina’s David Nalbandian, the seventh seed, brushed aside Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 6-2.

Twice champion Lleyton Hewitt was knocked out by American Mardy Fish, who beat the Australian for the first time 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, and Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka overcame South Korea’s Lee Hyung-taik 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Meanwhile, former women’s champion Maria Sharapova maintained her perfect start to the season to join fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semi-finals.

Sharapova, the Australian Open champion and fourth seed, stormed back from 5-2 down in the first set to beat holder Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 7-6, 6-1 in an evening quarter-final.

The 20-year-old will face Kuznetsova in the last four after the second seed swept past Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4.

It was Sharapova’s seventh win in eight career meetings against Hantuchova.

Sharapova, champion at Indian Wells in 2006, shrugged off a scrappy start to force a first-set tiebreak, which she took 7-2.

She then broke fifth-seeded Hantuchova in the second and sixth games of the second set to secure her 18th successive win.

Kuznetsova, who was upset by Radwanska in the Australian Open third round in January, broke her 19-year-old opponent in the first and third games of the opening set on the Stadium Court.

After service breaks were traded early in the second set, the 22-year-old Russian, last year’s Indian Wells runner-up, broke in the seventh game before serving out for victory.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Fourth round: 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt 23-Ivan Ljubicic

(Croatia) 6-3, 6-4; Mardy Fish (US) bt 24-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4); 9-James Blake (US) bt 8-Richard Gasquet (France) 6-4, 6-2; 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt 16-Guillermo Canas (Argentina) 6-2, 6-3; Tommy Haas (Germany) bt 11-Andy Murray (Britain) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt 17-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5; 7-David Nalbandian (Argentina) bt 22-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 6-2, 6-2; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Lee Hyung-taik (South Korea) 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Women’s singles:

Quarter-finals: 4-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt 5-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 7-6 (7-2), 6-1; 2-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 10-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) 6-2, 6-4.—Reuters