World No. 1 Roger Federer may need to get through a pair of Andy’s – World No. 4 Andy Murray and World No. 8 Andy Roddick – to reach the final at the BNP Paribas Open, the first of nine prestigious ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournaments this season. The Swiss is seeded to meet top American Roddick in the quarter-finals and 2009 finalist Murray in the semis.
Federer is looking to reach the Indian Wells final for the first time since 2006, when he won his third straight BNP Paribas Open title. He fell just shy the past two years, bowing out in the semi-finals. He will open against the winner between Victor Hanescu and Juan Ignacio Chela, and could face No. 27 seed Marcos Baghdatis in the third round.
Roddick, a three-time Indian Wells semi-finalist, may also need to work hard for a spot in the quarter-finals, with No. 12 seed Gael Monfils, Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Argentine David Nalbandian all potential opponents in the fourth round.
Meanwhile, British No. 1 Murray could come up against 13th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer or 2006 finalist James Blake in the fourth round. Ferrer enters Indian Wells riding a 7-match winning streak, and has won 11 of his past 12 matches. In the quarter-finals, Murray could meet Sweden’s Robin Soderling or Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, both past Grand Slam finalists.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal, who also won the Indian Wells title in 2007, could come up against Russian Nikolay Davydenko in his quarter-final match. Davydenko has won their past three meetings, including this past January in the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, to take the 5-4 lead in the lifetime series.
World No. 3 Nadal will play a qualifier in his second-round opening match, and could meet one of two Americans – No. 15 seed John Isner or No. 17 seed Sam Querrey – in the fourth round. Isner and Querrey have each won a hard-court title this season, Isner in Auckland and Querrey in Memphis.
Davydenko, the No. 5 seed, plays either 2009 ATP Comeback Player of the Year Marco Chiudinelli or recent Delray Beach titlist Ernests Gulbis in his opener. He could meet No. 10 seed Fernando Verdasco or No. 19 seed Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals.
In the bottom quarter of the draw, the 2008 Indian Wells finalists – Novak Djokovic and Mardy Fish – could clash in the second round. Fish, who upset three Top 10 players during his run to the final, will face German Michael Berrer in the first round.
Croatian Marin Cilic, the ATP match wins leader this season with an 18-2 mark, is seeded to meet Djokovic in the quarter-finals. But in-form Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, the No. 11 seed, could challenge the World No. 9 in the fourth round. The 30-year-old Ferrer won 14 of 15 matches during the Latin American clay-court swing.
Live Streaming Begins Saturday
Date: 09.03.2010, Source: Indian Wells
Date: 09.03.2010, Source: Indian Wells
0 comments:
Post a Comment