Indian Wells, USA, 13 March 2013 | tennis.com.au

Marinko Matosevic has given 23rd seed Sam Querrey an almighty scare at the BNP Parisbas Open in Indian Wells before ultimately going down in three tight sets.

The Australian fought for two-and-three-quarter hours before falling 7-6(5) 6-7(7) 7-5.

With the match delicately poised at 5-5 in the final set, Querrey snatched a valuable break in the 11th game and duly served out the match to progress to the fourth round.

Querrey will next face the winner of the match between top seed Novak Djokovic and No.31 seed Grigor Dimitrov.

The American deprived Matosevic of rhythm throughout the match, serving up 15 aces but accompanying these with 11 double faults.

Matosevic was excellent on return in converting four of five break points, and also won a better percentage of points on his second serve compared with Querrey, but struggled with his first serve, landing less than half.

Querrey managed to score one extra service break – finishing with five in all – that proved decisive.

Matosevic will next travel to the Sony Open Tennis event in Miami, Florida.