Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will play one another in the fourth round at Indian Wells after coming through their respective ties.
It will be a repeat of the Australian Open final, in which Federer claimed his 18th Grand Slam in January.
It took just over an hour-and-a-half for Federer to overcome Steve Johnson 7-6(3) 7-6(4) and grab a spot in the next round, while Nadal's 6-3 7-5 triumph over Fernando Verdasco took just as long.
It was difficult to separate Federer and Johnson in the first set as games went the way of serve, with neither creating a single break point in normal play.
The Swiss pro stepped it up in the tie-break, though, by winning it 7-3, but once again he failed to make an early breakthrough in the second set.
Federer, who has won one title in the last two years, created four break points but took none of them, and required another tie-break to get over the line.
For Nadal, he eased through the opening set against Verdasco in 31 minutes, snatching just the one break point, but he suffered a wobble when his opponent broke back early in the second.
It was a tense contest at 5-5, but Nadal edged ahead with a snatch of serve and that was enough to progress into the last 16.
