Indian Wells, CA, USA, 15 March 2015 | tennis.com.au

Seeded Australians Sam Stosur and Bernard Tomic have advanced to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells with straight-sets victories over teenaged opponents on Saturday.

Tomic, seeded 32nd, brushed aside 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric 6-3 6-4 before the No.21 seed Stosur eased to victory over American 18-year-old Taylor Townsend 6-4 6-2.

They joined Aussie teen Thanasi Kokkinakis in the winners’ circle, after the South Australian upset 23rd seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

> READ MORE: Kokkinakis through to third round

Tomic sent down nine aces against the qualifier, won 80 per cent of his first serve points and saved all three break points he faced.

He worked the ball about the court with his typical panache and guile to trouble Coric, who also appeared somewhat hampered by injury and required the trainer on court.

Tomic will take on No.8 seed David Ferrer in the third round.

Stosur, meanwhile, next meets defending champion Flavia Pennetta.

The Italian, who has yet to lose to Stosur in five career meetings, beat the Australian at the same stage of last year’s tournament en route to her biggest career title.

Stosur and Townsend were hard to separate in the early stages of the match, until the former world No.4 scored a late break to help her pocket the opening set.

In the second set, she proved too strong for the erratic American.

Producing some withering return winners in the sixth game, she forced Townsend to work hard for her service hold, and held serve resoundingly herself in the following game, moving ahead 5-2 thanks to a pair of aces.

In the final game, Stosur’s scorching returns drew several volley errors from the racquet of the net-rushing Townsend, helping her seal victory in one hour and 20 minutes.

“The start of the match was very close. We both were serving pretty well and not making too many in-roads on each other’s serves and then I got that break in the last game of the first set and from there started really returning better and kept the pressure on, and yeah, was able to play better and better as the match went on,” Stosur said.

She finished the match with 17 winners to just 13 errors, and won eight of nine points at the net.

Stosur finds herself in arguably the toughest section of the Indian Wells draw; should she get past Pennetta, she would face in the last 16 the winner of the blockbuster third-round match between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.

“(Pennetta) got me in three sets (last time) so I’d like to be able to turn that around; I don’t think we’ve played since,” Stosur said.

“She’s a very good player, she’s been around for a long time. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten Flavia so it’s certainly going to be a tough one for me but I’m going to give it my best shot.”