Tennis: Roger Federer & Novak Djokovic to meet in Indian Wells semis

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Roger Federer defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the BNP Paribas Open semfinals on Friday, setting up a showdown with Novak Djokovic for the world’s No. 2 ranking.

Federer is currently second behind Rafael Nadal in the ATP rankings, and Djokovic is third. Djokovic beat Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-4 to improve to 16-0 this year and put himself in position to surpass Federer in the rankings.

“I didn’t know it was the case coming into the tournament, and I feel like if you are playing a fellow top-five guy, it doesn’t matter what’s on the line,” Federer said. “You just want to beat him, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the finals, semis, rankings involved.”

Federer is 18-2 this year, with one tournament win in Doha. Djokovic won titles at the Australia Open and Dubai, where he beat Federer in the final. His last loss came against Federer in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour finals in London in November.

“I have a great record against fellow top-10 players, and that’s what kind of gets you going,” Federer said.

Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro will play in Saturday’s other semifinal. Between them, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have won six of the last seven finals at Indian Wells. Federer is a three-time champion, Nadal has won twice and Djokovic once.

Federer met little resistance against Wawrinka in their all-Swiss quarterfinal. He improved to 8-1 in his career against Wawrinka, with whom he teamed to beat Nadal and Marc Lopez 7-5, 6-3 in a doubles semifinal.

“I was down break points first game, and you don’t know how it goes from there if he breaks. I know the danger,” Federer said. “There are no secrets out there with Stan. It makes it really difficult playing a good friend like him.”

Djokovic has also been on a roll during the two-week tournament, losing 12 games in eight sets.

“Confidence plays a very important role in the life of a tennis player. So if you can roll on that run and try to use that confidence you can have a lot of success and you can really play well,” he said.

“I do feel really comfortable on the court and am trying to use that confidence because I know that it can easily change. It’s a very mental game.”

On the women’s side, 15th-seed Marion Bartoli became the first Frenchwoman to reach the singles final at Indian Wells, defeating No. 23 seed Yanina Wickmayer 6-1, 6-3.

She’ll play top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, who routed error-prone Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2. Wozniacki lost last year’s final to Jelena Jankovic, and is in a final for her third straight tournament.

“Definitely didn’t expect such a score, but I’m very pleased about the way I played and the way I got my tactics to work,” Wozniacki said. “It was very important for me to play good defense because Maria is hitting the ball hard. It was important to keep depth to my shots and make her move.”

There were eight service breaks in the match, with Sharapova blowing a 40-love lead on her serve to trail 5-1 in the first set. Tied 2-all in the second set, Sharapova fought back to deuce, then double-faulted away the game as Wozniacki won the final four games to close out the win. Playing her first semifinal of the year, Sharapova also double-faulted to lose her serve at 5-2.

“She played solid and I was really flat. I just rushed my shots a lot,” said Sharapova, playing her first tournament in five weeks because of illness. “I just didn’t have a spark. I stayed at the baseline, didn’t move from there. Yeah, stayed glued.”

Djokovic trailed 2-0 in the first before winning five straight games to take the set. Gasquet challenged the call on the final point, but the replay showed his backhand landed just wide.

Djokovic fell behind 3-0 in the second set, then won six of the next seven games to close out the match against the 18th seed from France.

The Frenchman defeated top-10 players Jurgen Melzer and Andy Roddick to reach the quarterfinals.

Against Wickmayer, Bartoli was still feeling the effects of a stomach bug that bothered her earlier in the week.

“My level dropped after the first set because still not able to fully eat normally before the match, so I didn’t have many fuel into my body to hang on,” she said. “But I stayed mentally very focused and I stayed positive toward the end.”

-AP

 

 

Sabrina

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