Former champions Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova advanced to the semi-finals of the Indian Wells WTA tournament in sharply contrasting fashion on Thursday.
Fourth seed John Isner gave himself the perfect US Open boost by upsetting fellow-American Andy Roddick 7-6, 6-4 in a slug-fest between two big servers in the Winston-Salem Open semi-finals on Friday.
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. However, smooth progress was made by three-times champion Roger Federer and third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic, Federer outplaying Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-4 after Djokovic had earlier crushed Argentina's Guillermo Canas 6-2, 6-3.