Federer, Nadal to clash at Indian Wells fourth round

Roger Federer edged Steve Johnson 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in a hard-serving duel at the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday, setting up a fourth-round match against Rafael Nadal.

Federer fired 12 aces - his fastest serve registering 131 mph - and never faced a break point against Johnson, who reached 136 on the radar gun and fought off all four break points against him.

Federer is a four-time champion at Indian Wells who won his last title in 2012. He defeated Nadal in the Australian Open final in January for his record 18th Grand Slam title. Their meeting on Wednesday will be the earliest they have played since their first match in 2004 at Miami, where Nadal won.

"I'm very excited. That's why I came here, play against guys like Rafa. Now we have it," said Federer. "Australia helps me a little bit, but at the end of the day, I'm still in the comeback.

"I try to see it really as another opportunity to build upon something for the rest of the season. So regardless of Australia, winning or losing, I'm going to try to go out there and try to play free again. I think it's really important. I feel like tomorrow if I move well, I will definitely have a chance against Rafa.

"Because it's early in the tournament, I think we both don't quite yet know to 100 percent how everything feels. There is a bit of the unknown, which is exciting maybe for the fans to see how we're going to try to figure that part out."

Federer hit 32 winners against Johnson, including a forehand volley that earned him a mini-break in the first set tiebreaker. He won five of the next six points and closed out the set on Johnson's desperate backhand lob that landed wide.

Johnson held at 6-all to force the second tiebreaker and fell behind 4-2. He broke Federer for a 4-all tie before Federer won on his second match point when Johnson netted a backhand.

"In the second set, I think he was serving almost 90 percent at one point," Federer said. "That's why I changed my position on the return. I was trying to mix it up a bit."

Nadal advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 win against 26th-seeded Fernando Verdasco for his 50th career victory at the desert tournament, where he's won three titles but none since 2013.

Nadal called it unlucky that he and Federer were to play before the quarterfinals. The Spaniard leads the rivalry 23-12, including a 9-8 edge on hardcourts.

"It doesn't matter if everybody is playing well because from our part of the draw, only one of us is going to be in that semifinals," Nadal said. "So that's tough, but that's not happening every week. Only thing we can do to avoid that is be in higher position of the ranking."

Without a win against Federer since the Australian Open in 2014 - a run of back-to-back defeats - Nadal knows he has his work cut out in the earliest meeting between the pair since the third round of the Miami Open in 2004.

"Federer has the talent to do very difficult things that look easy. He's able to take the ball very early. Serve and first shot, he creates a lot of winners with that, the two first shots," Nadal said.

"And then he's able to take the ball always from inside, and he's very quick going to the net. If you play a short ball, then you know that he’s going to go inside and going to hit a winner, going to play a shot to your forehand or backhand, goes to the net, and you are going to be in big trouble."

This will be their third tussle at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Fededer claimed their 2012 semifinal 6-3, 6-4, while Nadal returned the favour the following year in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-2. Between them, they have collectively accounted for seven of the past 13 Indian Wells titles.

Date: 15 March 2017, Source: AP, Omnisport and Indian Wells