Djokovic, Jankovic advance at Indian Wells

　　INDIAN WELLS, California, March 15, 2008 - Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic launched his campaign at the Indian Wells WTA and ATP Masters Series on Saturday with a scrappy 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) victory over Italian Andreas Seppi

　　Novak, ranked third in the world, was runner-up to Spain's Rafael Nadal at this tournament last year, a performance that helped launch a career year.

　　He broke into the top 10 and won five tournaments in 2007, and claimed his first Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open in January.

　　Djokovic struggled at times in the swirling winds on stadium court, missing his first opportunities to close out both the first set and the match.

　　He had a match point against Seppi's serve in the ninth game of the second set, but the Italian held for 5-4 then broke to level at 5-5. They traded breaks in the final two games to send the set to a tiebreaker, in which Djokovic took control early.

　　"I won, that's all that matters," Djokovic said, although he admitted he would have preferred to avoid some of his late mistakes, even if they were due in large part to the wind.

　　"Suddenly in the end of the second set, match point, since that match point, I started making a lot of mistakes," he said. "It was a very ugly match to watch a lot of unforced errors ... it was so windy that you couldn't get the rhythm, so that probably caused a lot of unforced errors."

　　Djokovic's second-round victory marked his first outing of the event - in which the top 32 men's and women's seeds had first-round byes.

　　Second-seeded Nadal was also in action on Saturday, taking on Colombian Santiago Giraldo.

　　Fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer advanced, downing Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-2, 6-2. Ferrer next faces South Korean Lee Hyung-Taik, who rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

　　Eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling. Gasquet took less than an hour to subdue Soderling, who had reached the finals at Rotterdam and Memphis in recent weeks.

　　Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, runner-up to Djokovic at the Australian Open, eased through with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Israel's Dudi Seli. Tsonga set up a clash with fellow Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, a 6-1, 7-6 (9/7) winner over Italian Fabio Fognini.

　　The women's second round continued with top-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic slated for action against Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru.

　　Ivanovic's third-seeded compatriot Jelena Jankovic cruised into the third round with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over American wild card Ahsha Rolle.

　　Jankovic, an Australian Open semi-finalist, next faces either Japan's Ai Sugiyama or Hungarian qualifier Greta Arn. Jankovic said the windy conditions made it difficult to assess her level of play.

　　"Sometimes it's more difficult to play in this kind of conditions because the ball moves around, and so sometimes you'll miss some of the shots that you normally don't miss, or go in a certain direction which you didn't want it to go," she said. "But that's the game, and that's the challenge that we have."

　　Sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of Francemoved on with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Russian Elena Vesnina, while seventh-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova was slated to close out the night session against Australian Casey Dellacqua.

　　US favorite Lindsay Davenport, winner of this title in 1997 and 2000 as well as a four-time runner-up, emerged with a victory over Gisela Dulko when the Argentinian retired after dropping the first set 6-2 with a thigh injury.

　　Dulko had called the trainer and had her ailing leg strapped during the set, but Davenport said she realized late in the set that her opponent couldn't move properly.

　　"I normally try not to worry about that too much," Davenport said. "All of a sudden, at 5-2, I could tell she was having a really hard time moving to her right or to the forehand. After seeing her in that game I wasn't surprised she stopped."