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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal Could Resume Rivalry In Indian Wells
By Richard Pagliaro
Photo Credit: Zahed Khan
(March 9, 2010) INDIAN WELLS — Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal took a magic carpet ride to launch the 2010 season.
The current and former World No. 1 players will both try to relaunch their seasons with successful comebacks at Indian Wells this week.
In recent years, only those players who thrive in the rare air at the top of tennis have succeeded in mastering the season's first Masters 1000 event.
Three men — three-time champion Federer (2004-2006), 2008 champion Novak Djokovic and reigning champion Nadal — have combined to capture the last six BNP Paribas Open championships and enter this week's event as the top three seeds.
All three men open the tournament facing challenges before they strike a single shot.
Australian Open champion Federer has been sidelined with a lung infection since sweeping Andy Murray to win the Melbourne major. Nadal has been out of action with a right knee injury since retiring from the Australian Open quarterfinal match against Murray. Djokovic is bidding to bounce back from a physically-demanding Davis Cup weekend that saw him out duel big-serving American John Isner in a five-set fight that spanned four hours.
It's been 10 months since Nadal and Federer last faced off with Federer posting a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the Madrid final. The current and former World No. 1 players kicked off the ATP season in January engaging in a promotional match aboard a magic carpet ride in Doha and both will be bidding to relaunch their Masters ascent in Indian Wells.
The men's draw for the BNP Paribas Open was conducted today and offers the prospect of the first Federer-Nadal final since last May.
Though Nadal has not won a hard-court title since his crushing conquest of Andy Murray, 6-1, 6-2, in the 2009 final and comes into the tournament with a severe shortage of match play, players report the gritty court is playing sand-paper slow, which could help the third-seeded Spaniard strong-arm his way to his fifth consecutive Indian Wells semifinal.
Federer, who has looked eager and excited to be back on court in his practice sessions this
week, has a first-round by and will play either Romanian Victor Hanescu or Argentina's Juan
Ignacio Chela in the second round. Federer's first match against a seed could come in the third round against 27th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, who is winless against Federer in six matches.
If the seeds hold true to form Federer would face seventh-seeded Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals. Roddick, who looked strong and rarely missed a ball practicing with former Davis Cup teammate James Blake on stadium court today, has reached the Indian Wells semifinals in two of the last three years.
Should the Federer-Roddick quarterfinal come off it would mark their first meeting since Federer fought off Roddick in the classic 2009 Wimbledon final.
Acrobatic Frenchman Gael Monfils, the enigmatic, but extremely talented Richard Gasquet and wild card David Nalbandian, who nearly knocked Nadal out of the tournament last year and arrives in Indian Wells fresh off his Davis Cup heroics in helping Argentina top host Sweden last week, are all intriguing floaters capable of disrupting a potential Federer-Roddick quarterfinal.
On paper, Federer has the clearest path to the semifinals of any of the top four seeds.
Andy Murray has been an Indian Wells semifinalist in two of the last three years and and is a
solid favorite to continue that run. The fourth-seeded Scot will play either American wild card
Robby Ginepri or Italian Andreas Seppi in his opening match. Murray's first test could come in the form of a fourth-round clash with either 13th-seeded Acapulco champion David Ferrer or No. 23 seed Ivo Karlovic, the Delray Beach runner-up.
Sixth-seeded Robin Soderling or ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are potential quarterfinal opponets for Murray, who owns a 2-1 record against both men. Soderling won his last meeting with Murray, but that match was played four years ago on an indoor hard court in Memphis. Tsonga toppled Murray in the opening round of the 2008 Australian Open and went on to reach the final that year.
Both Nadal and Djokovic reside on the bottom half of the draw and could face first-week
challenges from Americans.
Nadal, who has a first-round bye and will face a qualifier in his second-round match could be
tested in the round of 16 against either Isner or 17th-seeded Sam Querrey. The American Davis Cup teammates partnered to win the doubles title in Memphis and are set to square off in the third round with the winner potentially playing Nadal. Nadal is 3-0 lifetime against Querrey, but the 6-foot-6 Californian has won a set in all three of those meetings. The 20th-ranked Isner and Nadal have never met in a pro match.
Should Nadal advance to the quarterfinals he could face either fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, whose strained right wrist that prevented him from playing last weekend's Davis Cup tie in Moscow makes him a question mark here, 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, who played a pulsating five-set semifinal against Nadal in the 2009 Australian Open, but whose backhand has been vulnerbale to Nadal's left-handed forehand or 19th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych. Latvian Ernests Gulbis could be the darkhorse in Nadal's quarter of the draw. Gulbis captured his first career ATP Tour title in Delray Beach two weeks ago. The former French Open quarterfinals has won eight of his last nine matches, including victories over Radek Stepanek, Berdych and Karlovic in that span.
Djokovic will play either Germany's Michael Berrer, Federer's practice partner on Monday, or Mardy Fish in his first match. A Djokovic-Fish match would be a rematch of the 2008 Indian Wells final. Fish has been pained by his surgically-repaired left knee and if his movement is compromised he could be hard-pressed to slow Djokovic, one of the smoothest movers on hard court in the game.
The second-seeded Serbian has played some of his best tennis at Masters 1000 hard-court events. Djokovic reached five Masters 1000 finals last season, losing his first four finals before beating Gael Monfils in the Paris final. Djokovic led the ATP Tour in hard court matches won (53) last season, but has sometimes complicated matters for himself playing a bit too defensively this season.
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