Three former world No.1s and at the same time three former champions at the BNP Paribas Open – Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic – won their third round matches at the tournament, while the highest seed to fall on the day was No.6 Samantha Stosur.

The second-seeded Sharapova defeated Simona Halep 6-3 6-4, but only after the Romanian took four games in a row from 3-6 0-5 and saved four match points.

Ivanovic, seeded 15th, had a 5-3 lead in the first set against Ksenia Pervak and later had a set point in the tiebreak, but still she lost the set. However, the 2008 Indian Wells champion did manage to grind out a 6-7(8) 6-3 6-2 win in close to three hours.

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, fourth seed this year, did not have an initial lead, on the contrary, the score was against her 3-6 4-5 when she won six straight games to get back and manage to beat Sofia Arvidsson 3-6 7-5 6-2. Wozniacki will now meet Ivanovic in the fourth round, and Ivanovic will be able to avenge her recent Dubai loss to the Dane.

Sixth seed Samantha Stosur fell at the hands of Nadia Petrova, whom she had defeated at the 2011 US Open in the longest women's match ever at the tournament, but this time it was the Russian's day, and after two hours and 47 minutes Petrova came out on top, 6-1 6-7(6) 7-6(5). The dominant first set Petrova finished with three straight aces. (sources: WTA Tour, Women Who Serve, photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Nineteen-year-old American Christina McHale, ranked 35th, is still the luckiest in her home country. McHale produced the biggest upset so far at Indian Wells by beating world No.3 Petra Kvitova in the third round 2-6 6-2 6-3, while her previous Top 10 wins – over Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Marion Bartoli – also took place at the US tournaments.

After losing the first set, McHale took the match to the decider with four straight games won from 2-2 in the second set. McHale raced to a 4-1 lead in the decider, and even though Kvitova approached her to 3-4, McHale finished the match to her advantage.

Another young American is making her mark at Indian Wells – Jamie Hampton didn’t stop after upsetting Jelena Jankovic in the second round, and defeated Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2 6-7(1) 6-2 in the third.

Top seed at the tournament, world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, advanced with a comfortable 6-1 6-2 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, which is her 19th win to zero losses this season. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Second seed Maria Sharapova and fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki won their second round matches of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells 6-2 6-0, beating Gisela Dulko and Ekaterina Makarova respectively.

The 2006 champion Sharapova broke Dulko three times in each set en route to the victory. Simona Halep, who beat Petra Cetkovska 6-2 6-4, will be Sharapova’s opponent in the third round. They have never played each other so far.

Makarova, who played the quarterfinals of Australian Open this year, didn’t win a single service game in the quick loss to defending champion Wozniacki. Sofia Arvidsson, the 6-3 6-3 winner over Monica Niculescu, will be Wozniacki’s opponent in the third round. Arvidsson, 2-4 against Wozniacki in head-to-head, has recently won her second Memphis trophy. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

"I guess it's one of those days you just come on the court and the legs don't go, the reactions are not there," said JJ.

The last tournament the 12-time WTA titlist Jelena Jankovic won was Indian Wells in 2010, and the fact that she was coming off back-to-back semifinals in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, made us expect more from her, but the Serb lost her opening match to 99th-ranked Jamie Hampton in straight sets.

The young American wildcard, who has for the first time moved into the Top 100 this week, defeated the 12th-seeded Jankovic 6-4 6-3, surpassing what was just a match before her career-best victory, the 6-0 6-1 upset of world No.38 Polona Hercog in the first round of Indian Wells.

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka was on the verge of extinction, but survived Mona Barthel’s winning streak (ten out of 12 games won from 4-6 1-5), the German’s 4-1 lead in the third set and two times when she was serving for the match, to eventually win 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(6) after three hours, despite actually winning overall one point less than her opponent. Azarenka has thus kept her 2012 win-loss record intact, 18-0.

Two-time Indian Wells champion Daniela Hantuchova, seed No.19 this year, lost to Klara Zakopalova 6-3 6-7(7) 6-3 after a grueling match that also lasted three hours. This is the Slovakian’s third straight exit from Indian Wells in her opening match. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

During an All-Access Hour in Indian Wells, Caroline Wozniacki tried to be funny and pop a balloon behind Maria Sharapova, while the Russian was being interviewed, but what was supposed to be a prank turned into an epic fail. Watch!

Wozniacki is trying too hard! And the balloon fail wasn't all, she was even making faces behind Agnieszka Radwanska!?

On a different note, Wozniacki is willing to alter her game in order to win a major and/or the Olympics, even if it means losing some matches initially. The Dane will not change what is working, but she will try out new elements.

Wozniacki won Indian Wells last year, while in 2010 she was runner-up to Jelena Jankovic. (photo: AP via The Slice)