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Maria Sharapova of Russia in her match against Julia Georges of Germany during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Indian Wells, March 8, 2014. Sharapova won 6-1, 6-4. [Photo/Agencies]
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Before Nadal was sent packing, Sharapova committed 58 errors in her first loss to a player ranked outside the top 30 since
Wimbledon last year.
"She's someone that doesn't give you much rhythm," Sharapova said. "She's quite aggressive, but some shots she hits incredible for a long period of time. Sometimes they go off a bit. If I'm speaking about my level, it was nowhere near where it should have been."
Ranked 79th in the world, Giorgi made it through qualifying to play Indian Wells for the first time. She improved to 3-2 against top-10 opponents. The 22-year-old led 4-2 in the final set, but Sharapova broke Giorgi twice to tie it at 5.
"I was trying to just play my game, and maybe I accelerate more than the other set," Giorgi said. "I just play more aggressive."
Giorgi then broke Sharapova at love before serving out the match, overcoming her 11th double fault to set up match point. Giorgi had 48 unforced errors and 24 winners.
Awaiting Giorgi in the fourth round will be fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta, who beat No 16 seed Sam Stosur 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
American Sloane Stephens was to play Ana Ivanovic, and Tommy Haas took on Kei Nishikori of Japan in night matches.
Tied 4-all in the third, Sharapova was broken when her forehand was called long and Sharapova raised her arms. The chair umpire took the gesture to mean Sharapova was challenging the call, and the call showed the ball was out.
Sharapova argued she was only throwing her arms up as if to ask, "Who made the call?" But the umpire disa
greed, and Sharapova retreated to her sideline chair trailing 5-4.
Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka routed 29th-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-0, 6-2.
Andy Murray outlasted Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4 in his second straight three-set match, and four-time tourney champion
Roger Federer defeated 27th-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2) with an ace on match point.
Murray had 47 of the 99 unforced errors during the nearly three-hour match in the 80-plus-degree heat of the Southern California desert. The third set featured six service breaks, with Murray taking the last two.
Top-seeded
Li Na defeated Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4.
