It’s not as easy as 1-2-3, but big tennis names advance

The tennis triumvirate that has made the men’s game flourish for some time continued doing the same Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Not often do Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, play separate matches in the same session in tournaments. Seedings and built-in rest days take care of that. But they did so Wednesday, making a day-session ticket priceless.

And the expected — these days almost presumed — took place. All three won, all three are now in the quarterfinals in the hunt for the $1-million first prize. And all three appear to be on top of their games, even though Djokovic and Federer needed three sets to win.

Djokovic cruised through unseeded Spaniard Pablo Andujar in a 6-0 first set, and then took his foot off the pedal a bit and lost a second-set tiebreaker.

“In the third set, I regrouped,” Djokovic said.

Final score: 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

Federer wandered a bit in a first-set loss to Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, also unseeded. He lost that one, 6-3, then broke early in the second set for his own 6-3. That brought a typical Federer moment. Serving at 4-4 of the final set, he stumbled to love-30, leaving the Brazilian just six points from the match and the biggest upset of his life.

Federer, looking as unfazed as always, took a breath, served an ace, then a service winner to 30-all, then a pair of125-mph bullets that were untouchable by Bellucci. Instead of serving for the match, the Brazilian was serving to stay alive — against Roger Federer.

Guess what. Three minutes and two match points later, Bellucci hit long and Federer had joined Djokovic and Nadal in the quarterfinals.

“I was taking too many chances early on,” Federer said. “It was a good match to get through.”

Final score: 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

On paper, Nadal actually had the toughest opponent of the three, 21st-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov. It turned out he had the easiest time.

“The match started a terrific way for me with a break,” Nadal said. “That gave me confidence. I did what I had to do.”

Final score: 6-3, 6-2.

One statistic might tell it all about the dominance of this threesome.

Since Marat Safin won the 2005 Australian Open, 27 of the next 28 Grand Slam men’s singles titles have been won by Djokovic, Nadal or Federer. Djokovic has five, Nadal has 10 and Federer has 12. Juan Martin del Potro broke the mold by winning the 2009 U.S. Open.

In other matches, U.S. player John Isner, seeded 11th and playing superb tennis, advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 win over qualifier Matthew Ebden; Argentina’s David Nalbandian, given a wild card to play here, made it all the way to the quarterfinals and a match against Nadal with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. The Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych, playing so well to this point in the tournament, had a bad day and lost to Nicolas Almagro of Spain, 6-4, 6-0. Berdych was seeded seventh, Almagro 12th.

On the women’s side, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka nearly pulled off the double bagel against No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska. She led, 6-0, 5-0, and won, 6-0, 6-2, to reach the semifinals.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com