The South Region's top seed needed 17 points from Jeff Withey, and a series of foul shots from Ben McLemore and Naadir Tharpe down the stretch, to hold off scrappy Western Kentucky 64-57 Friday night and avoid another upset on a day full of them in the NCAA tournament.
Elsewhere, third seed Novak Djokovic saved two set points against Juan Monaco on his way to a 6-3 7-5 victory.
Federer faced 10 break points against the third seed as his serve let him down badly, his 55 per cent of first serves paling in comparison to Davydenko's 79 per cent.
Second seed Nadal saved a remarkable four match points and was a break down in the third set, but overcame Almagro, who himself required treatment in the closing stages, to progress.
Surrendering only eight points on her serve, the second seed hit just four unforced errors as she set up a second round clash with Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard.
The second set went with serve, but 16th seed Li again dug deep to save three match points in the 10th game and another at 5-6 to force a second tiebreaker.
Limiting the top-seeded Hoosiers to their lowest output of the season while forcing 19 turnovers and blocking 10 shots, No. 4 seed Syracuse used Michael Carter-Williams' 24 points to upset Indiana 61-50 Thursday night and reach the East Regional final.
Both New York clubs have 37 points, though the Rangers hold the higher seed having played one less game than their metropolitan area rivals.
But Azarenka won eight of the next nine points and the set, as the sixth seed Li made six of her match total of 57 unforced errors.
But Ms. Azarenka won eight of the next nine points and the set, as the sixth seed Ms. Li made six of her match total of 57 unforced errors.
Elsewhere, the No. 4 seed Juan Martin del Potro was forced to save three match points during a hard fought 4-6 6-4 7-6 victory over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis .
Zach LeDay had 13 points and 15 rebounds to lead No. 13 seed South Florida (12-19), which shot 24.2 percent and squandered an eight-point cushion down the stretch in a game between offensively challenged squads that both went 3-15 in conference play.
Rasheed Sulaimon scored 21 points, Seth Curry had 17 and the No. 2 seed Blue Devils beat seventh-seeded Creighton 66-50 on Sunday night to advance to the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth time in five years.
The Polish eighth seed tore through the opener in 24 minutes, with Baltacha losing 13 straight points at one stage.
Breanna Stewart scored 21 points and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis added 17 to help top-seed UConn rout Kentucky 83-53 on Monday night and advance to a record sixth-straight national semifinal.
The West's No. 3 seed won 57 games with a lineup that features nine players averaging at least eight points per game.
DeQuan Hicks had 12 points for the Demons, who upset Iowa as the No. 14 seed in their last NCAA tournament seven years ago.
Paul George scored 27 points and the Pacers powered their way closer to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference by beating the Knicks 125-91 on Wednesday night.
Smith is averaging 26 points through his first four NCAA tournament games for the No. 1 overall seed and is such a deft scorer that he sometimes doesn't even bother with the rebounding portions of pregame layup lines.
The 32-year-old Ponikarovsky had one goal, nine points and 50 hits last postseason, as New Jersey, a No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, defeated Florida, Philadelphia, and the New York Rangers before losing to Los Angeles in the Stanley Cup final.
Danny Manning scored 20 points for the Jayhawks who went on to win it all as a No. 6 seed under coach Larry Brown.
Mauresmo failed to win any of four game points at 5-5, as Clijsters, who came from a set behind to been second seed Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-finals, again broke.
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