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Defending champion Rafael Nadal, Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic and women’s top seed Ana Ivanovic all advanced to the third round of the Pacific Life Open with straight set wins Saturday.

Nadal, the No. 2 seed, beat qualifier Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, 6-3, 6-3.

The third-seeded Djokovic bested Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-6 (3) on another day plagued by cold, gusty winds.

Novak Djokovic held off a fightback by American Mardy Fish to win the Pacific Life Open final 6-2 5-7 6-3 in California today and secure his second prestigious ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) title of the year.

Two months after claiming his first Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open, the third-seeded Serb broke world No 98 Fish once in the final set before sealing victory in just over two hours.

“There is something in this desert air which keeps me going year after year,” said world No 3 Djokovic, the runnerup at Indian Wells 12 months ago.

“I am doing pretty good here.

Fish, ranked a career-high 17th four years ago, capped a remarkable week that featured three victories over top-10 players by stunning Swiss world No 1 Roger Federer in yesterday’s semifinals.

“This has been a tremendous week for me, definitely one I will never forget,” said Fish, who won the last of his two ATP titles in Houston in 2006.

“Yesterday was one of the best days of my life and this is my favourite tournament.”

The women’s final was won by Serb Ana Ivanovic, who clinched her first title of the year by hammering Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-3.

The 20-year-old top seed broke Kuznetsova, the second seed, three times in the second set to wrap up victory in one hour 21 minutes.

It was the sixth success of Ivanovic’s career and Kuznetsova’s third loss in a final this season.

“It’s a great victory for me,” Ivanovic said after securing the first Masters Series title of the year and beating the Russian for a fifth time in six meetings.

“When I managed to break her at four-all in the first set, it gave me confidence and I went strong from that point on.

“I was most happy about my aggressiveness today,” added the Serb, who hit 30 winners to Kuznetsova’s 14.

Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, conceded she had been totally outplayed.

“It’s always painful to lose, but I prefer to get to the final losing than to lose in second round,” the Russian said.

So, Novak won 9th ATP title and proved his the most dominant player this season. After winning the first Grand Slam of the season, Novak dominated in the season’s first Masters Series tournament. In front of 18.000 spectators, Novak won first set with 6:2.

In 2nd Novak won 2 break games and led 4:2 and it seemed it will be a fast finish of the match with Novak on serve. Though, Mardy made the match more interesting equalling to 5:5 in games, Mardy won a break and after a powerful service game won the set 5:7 to become the only player this year in Indian Wells who won a set against Novak.

3rd set started with 40:0 for Mardy on Novak’s serve, then Novak made 3 aces for 40:40, 1 service winner, and a point for 1:0 lead in games. In the following games Mardy (Fish) was caught up in Novak’s net and didn’t manage to get out. Soon it was 3:0 for Novak, 4:1, 5:2, 6:3.

Novak talked about the opening game of 3rd set: ‘That was a crucial moment and it was the turning point in the whole match, if I didn’t come up with the three aces, it could go either way’.

Novak’s thought about his season up to now: ‘It’s been a dream start, of course. Before I started playing this season, I said that my two goals is to be consistent with the results, I reach the Masters and hopefully win one Grand Slam. I did all that in very, very small amount of time’.

Novak: ‘But again, I don’t want to stop here, even though I’ve been playing fantastic, and I’m lucky enough to have a lot of important tournaments on this surface, which suits me the best, and I just try. I’ll try to keep going in Miami, and I’m defending champion there. But coming up from Indian Wells as tournament winner, it’s much easier to play’.

Mardy: ‘It would be really nice to take this momentum and take this confidence into next week, because next week is just as big of a week for me. I didn’t play last year. I think I put myself in a nice position now around 40 in the world with not a match to defend until August 19th, which I checked’.

Novak won additional 150 ATP points as he played in the Final last year (that earned him 350 ATP points) and is now a step closer to the leading duo, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Title brought Novak $550.000 in prize money, while Mardy won $277.000 in prize money also emense 350 ATP points which rocketed him from previous World #98 position to #40 position in this morning’s, Monday March 23rd, ATP rankings.