Men's Quarterfinals, Women's Semifinals Set For Friday at BNP Paribas Open

The final two men's singles quarterfinal matches in the BNP Paribas Open are scheduled for this afternoon at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, while both women's singles semifinals are planned for tonight.

Novak Djokovic, the world's top-ranked men's player, is set to face eight-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, seeking to improve his record for 2013 to 17-0 for the year and increase his winning streak dating back to 2012 to 22 matches.

Djokovic has not lost since Oct. 31. The Serb has beaten Tsonga nine of the 14 times they have met, including each of the past seven matches.

The match will begin no earlier than 1:30 p.m.

The second quarterfinal will pit third-ranked Andy Murray of Great Britain against seventh-ranked Juan Martin Del Porto of Argentina. Murray and Del Porto will be meeting for the first time since 2009. Murray leads the series, 5-1.

Women's singles semifinal play will begin no earlier than 6:30 p.m. with fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany meeting eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Maria Sharapova will face fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in the second semifinal.

"It's never easy to play against a compatriot but one of us will go through to the final, which is one good thing," said Sharapova, who is seeded second, 11 spots ahead of Kirilenko. "We always have difficult matches against each other."

Sharapova has beaten Kirilenko four of the six times they've met, including both times last year.

The semifinal winners will meet in the final Sunday.

Kerber and Wozniacki both advanced to the semifinals because their planned quarterfinal opponents were unable to play Thursday.

Seventh-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia had to withdraw from her quarterfinal against Kerber because of a calf muscle injury. The tournament's top seed, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, had an right ankle injury that left her unable to play Wozniacki.

Thursday's play was highlighted by Rafael Nadal defeating Roger Federer, 6-4, 6-2. Locked in one of the greatest rivalries in tennis, they were meeting for the first time since last year's BNP Paribas Open.

Nadal, who dropped to fifth in the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings after being sidelined for seven months last year because of a knee injury, broke Federer's serve in  the seventh game of the first set.

Nadal took a 3-0 lead in the second set. Federer, who is ranked second, seeded second and the tournament's defending champion, broke Nadal's serve in the fourth game. Nadal broke Federer's serve in the seventh game, then held serve to close out the victory in 84 minutes.

Nadal leads the series, 19-10. The meeting was their first since Federer's 6-3, 6-4 victory in the semifinals of last year's BNP Paribas Open.

Sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic defeated unseeded South African Kevin Anderson, 6-4, 6-4, in Thursday's other men's quarterfinal to advance to a semifinal Saturday against Nadal.