Indian Wells: Somdev Dev Varman set up a dream match against world No. 1 Rafael Nadal after his stunning three-set win over Xavier Malisse in the BNP Paribas ATP Masters here.

Somdev shocked Belgium’s Malisse 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5) in his third round match in the $3,64,500 hard court tournament.

The pre-quarters tie with Nadal will be Somdev’s second big match of his life after playing against multiple Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in Dubai last month.

Nadal beat American qualifier Ryan Sweeting 6-3, 6-1 to move to the pre-quarter finals and then delayed his post match interview to watch the final set tie-breaker of the Somdev-Mailsse match. Somdev broke Malisee’ serve twice and dropped his own once apart from saving a breakpoint en route to the win. Nadal, meanwhile, had little trouble against Sweeting on the showpiece stadium court, moving effortlessly to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

“I didn’t have big mistakes. In general, I am happy with the serve, happy with the backhand. My forehand always is my best shot, and I need to be more aggressive,” said Nadal.

Swede Robin Soderling bemoaned his stupidity for playing with an injury on Monday after becoming the highest-seeded casualty. The fourth seed was beaten 7-6, 6-4 by German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Soderling squandered five set points before losing the opener 10-8 in a tiebreaker and was then broken by Kohlschreiber in the decisive 10th game of the second set. The German, seeded 32nd, has always proven a handful for the Swede, who has now lost four of their five meetings.

In other matches, big-serving American Sam Querrey upset ninth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-4 and former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina beat 20th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 6-3.

In the third round of the WTA tournament, a jubilant Dinara Safina added another chapter to her on-court renaissance by upsetting fourth-seeded Samantha Stosur 7-6, 6-4.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki finally found a way to beat Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez with a ruthless 6-1, 6-3 demolition in the first match of the day on the showpiece stadium court.

In other matches, eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 7-6 6-3 but there was better news for her ninth-seeded sister Agnieszka Radwanska, who battled past Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-0 2-6 7-5.