Pospisil stuns Murray

World number one Andy Murray was sent packing from the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday after losing 6-4, 7-6(5) to Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil.

Pospisil delivered the knockout punch in style, whipping a crosscourt winner on his fourth match point in front of the near capacity crowd that included former boxing champion Mike Tyson.

Pospisil was rewarded for his aggressive approach, rushing the net whenever the opportunity arose and pouncing on Murray's second serve.

Pospisil joked that his lowly current world ranking was due to a "mid-life crisis" that saw him endure a lean 2016, after he had made the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2015.
Earlier, Italian Fabi Fognini won a battle of expectant fathers when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4.

Fognini survived a first-set tiebreak and a tense final set before upsetting the seventh-seeded in a match that stretched over two hours  in the blazing afternoon sun.

Fognini considered himself fortunate even to make it to the second round.

The Italian dropped the first set to love and was down 5-2 in the second set of his first-round encounter with Russian Konstantin Kravchuk, before roaring back to win 0-6 7-5 6-4.

In another upset on Saturday, Japanese world number 70 Yoshihito Nishioka beat Croatian veteran Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-3, but seeds Dominic Thiem, David Goffin and Tomas Berdych won their matches to advance.

Kerber wins

Angelique Kerber, who will reclaim the world number one ranking on Monday, breezed to a 6-2, 6-1 second-round victory over fellow German Andrea Petkovic.

Second-seed Kerber broke Petkovic to open the match  and claim the win.

Fourth seed Simona Halep also won emphatically, 6-4, 6-1 over Donna Vekic.

Halep, the 2015 champion, broke her Croatian opponent no fewer than seven times.

While Kerber and Halep won in quick fashion, 12th seed Venus Williams beat Serbian Jelena Jankovic in a dramatic battle between the former world number ones.

Jankovic raced through the first set and seemed poised for an upset, but the second set tiebreak proved pivotal, as Williams survived, staving off three match points en route to a 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 victory.

Sania-Strycova through

Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova stormed into the quarterfinals with a straight-set win in the women’s doubles.

The Indo-Czech pair beat Sara Errani of Italy and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-2, 6-3 in a 64-minute second-round contest last night.

Meanwhile in the men’s doubles, Leander Paes and his Argentine partner Juan Martin del Potro lost to American Sam Querrey and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 3-6, 4-6 in the first round.