Murray, Ferrer fall at Indian Wells

American qualifier Donald Young upset world number five Murray 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 in the second round of the WTA and ATP Masters 1000 tournament.

Scotsman Murray looked rusty in his opening match at Indian Wells and in his first career meeting against the 21-year-old Young. Murray has now lost his last six sets.

“I started the match well but then when it got close I didn’t do anything to lift myself,” said Murray. “The crowd was for him and then he started to play better and I didn’t play my way back into the match.”

It marked the first victory over a top-10 opponent for Young, who has a 3-3 record this year.

Young advanced to the third round, where he will face Spain’s Tommy Robredo, who beat Mischa Zverev 6-3 3-6 7-5.

Young was overjoyed with his victory and hopes it is a sign of good things to come.

“I am still thinking about it,” he said. “I’ve been in this position a couple of times with a few players and had not won the match.

“I just told myself this time I was going to see it through and not let the nerves get the best of me.”

Young had a successful junior career and turned pro at a young age but then his career hit the skids and he says he got lost in the shuffle.

“I was considered a bust at 17,” Young said. “It’s tough. You go through people really wanting you to win all the time and are really behind you to just writing you off.

“I think this time through here I’ve had time to think about all those things and work hard, and people are not paying as much attention to me like they used to.”

Spain’s Ferrer was also sent crashing, falling in the second-round to unseeded Ivo Karlovic.

The 32-year-old Croatian hammered nine aces to win 7-6 (7/3) 6-3. Ferrer had already won titles this year in Auckland and Acapulco.

Karlovic is ranked 239th in the world, well off his career high ranking of 14th in 2008. He has a 5-7 record this year and has reached just one quarter-final in Doha.

But on Saturday, Karlovic closed out the 96-minute match with an ace to post his first win over Ferrer in three career meetings.

Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro continued his comeback from a wrist injury by rallying to beat Ljubicic 5-7 6-4 6-2.

A year ago, former world No. 3 Ljubicic beat Novak Djokovic in the final but Del Potro was too much for him to handle Saturday.

Del Potro has rebounded from an injury-marred 2010 to reach back-to-back semi-finals in San Jose and Memphis and then go on to win his eighth career title last month at Delray Beach.

There were surprises on the women’s side on Saturday as well, as Dinara Safina of Russia ousted former two-time Indian Wells champion Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7/2) 6-4.

Safina won despite committing eight double faults, including three in the fourth game of the first set where she struggled to hold serve. She then went on to win three of the final four games in the first set.

“It definitely feels good,” Safina said. “I was trying very hard and fighting.

“She had two set points in the first set. I pulled them out, and then I started to play a little bit better. I’m really happy with the win today.”

In other matches, India’s Somdev Devvarman defeated Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-0 and Aravane Rezai of France beat China’s Zhang Shuai 7-6 (7/5) 6-0.