Djokovic eases through at Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic may not be off to another perfect start to the year, but he remains consistent when it comes to winning his opening match at Indian Wells. Defending champion  defeated Andrey Golubev in the second round for the second year in a row, easily beating the Kazakh qualifier 6-3, 6-2 in a 62-minute center court match on Saturday. Last year, Djokovic needed just 60 minutes to oust Golubev before going on to capture his second Indian Wells title. "It was a good start," Djokovic said. "We didn't play a beautiful match. There were a lot of unforced errors but it was the opening match and I am still trying to adjust to this court and get used to the conditions. Hopefully the next match will be better." World No. 1 Djokovic, who came to California last year riding a win streak that he eventually stretched to 41 matches, is now 11-1 on the season. The lone blemish on his record is a defeat in the Dubai semi-finals last week to Andy Murray, who was due on the Indian Wells court in a later match. Djokovic, who won his fifth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, advanced to the third round, where he will face South African Kevin Anderson, who won in a walkover when German Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew. Djokovic broke Golubev to go up 5-2 in the second set, winning the game when his shot struck the net cord and dribbled over to the other side. That came after Golubev had double faulted three times in the game. That allowed Djokovic to serve for the match and he clinched the victory on his second match point when Golubev failed to return the Serb's first serve. Both Indian Wells defending champions advanced in straight sets on Saturday as Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark kick-started her bid to become just the second woman to win back-to-back titles here. Wozniacki broke Ekaterina Makarova of Russia in every service game to post a 6-2, 6-0 win. "I don't like to be out there for too long if I don't have to," Wozniacki said. "I like to play tennis and I love grinding it out, but if I have the opportunity to finish it off fast, I like that." Fourth-seeded Wozniacki advances to the third round, where she will face top Swede Sofia Arvidsson, who beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 6-3. Wozniacki has now won three straight matches against Makarova all in straight sets. It took her just 34 minutes to get a first set jump on Makarova, who stumbled on her serve, winning just two of 21 points on her second serve. "I felt I played pretty okay out there," Wozniacki said. "It's a first round, and I actually felt comfortable. It's a tournament where I feel like I can play some good tennis." Two other women's top seeds advanced as sixth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur and second seed Maria Sharapova cruised through their opening matches on Saturday. Stosur, who made the semi-finals in Indian Wells two years ago, breezed past American wildcard Irina Falconi 6-0, 6-3. The reigning US Open champion put on an impressive serving display, blasting four aces and registering an 83 percent success rate on first-serve points in the 48-minute match. Three-time grand slam winner Sharapova dispatched Dulko in just 66 minutes, winning 6-2, 6-0 in the night match. The 24-year-old Russia improved to 9-2 this season as she tries to regain the number one ranking in the world. Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic avenged a loss last year at Roland Garros by routing Johanna Larsson in straight sets. The 24-year-old Serb, who won the Indian Wells title in 2008, improved to 2-1 lifetime against the Swede, needing just 61 minutes to beat Larsson in their second-round match 6-1, 6-2. In other men's second round matches, Andy Roddick rallied to beat Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 and Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4.