Del Potro to take on Federer at Indian Wells

Federer suffered a scare in Saturday’s semi-final as he was a set and a break down to world No 49 Coric before fighting back to his 17th successive game in 2018.

It marks the end of Federer’s 17-match win streak to start the calendar year, with the usually unflappable Federer noticeably frustrated throughout the match, complaining to the umpire over a number of calls. I feel frustrated that I let an opportunity like this go by. I was not waiting.

Federer, says this has been the best match he has played in quite some time. Raonic didn’t play in Indian Wells previous year because of a string of injuries and surgeries that decimated his season. “At the end, he just got through”.

Del Potro was competing in his first Indian Wells final since 2013, when he lost to Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Jeremy Chardy, the world #100, gave his best in that match and made Federer work for his 7-5 6-4 win but the outcome never really looked in doubt.

The crowd were off their seats when Federer produced a brilliant victor at full stretch in the first game of the second set and rose again when he won an epic rally which Del Potro kept alive with a between-the-legs shot from the baseline. Del Potro has seen some success against Federer in the past, but the world No. 1 has also been on fire as of late. So no doubt about it, this was definitely the toughest match…

On the win against Raonic, Del Potro said: “I think I was lucky in both sets. It was an easier match than what I expect before”. “You need to be match-tough, you need to be confident, have experience, and I think I have a bit of all of that right now, and that’s the reason I won”.

Tensions eased slightly into the third set, with neither player able to break the other until Federer capitalised on his second break point on del Potro’s fifth service game. He earned a crucial mini-break in the 18th point to grab the breaker 10-8, sending the match into a decider and seizing the momentum before set number three.

“That’s why he’s champion”, Coric said. “I like it when it’s the unknown, even though it can be a bit scary”.

“Then I won the Davis Cup and I said, ‘OK, I don’t have any more pressure to play tennis because I won everything I wanted except a Masters 1000.’ But today I did that”.

But the 36-year-old will have to get past the big-hitting Argentine, who got the better of the Swiss in the US Open quarter-finals last September. The Swiss held to love with a rare drop-shot victor, and broke for the match, 6-4.

After the match, Federer admitted that he “should have lost”. “Well done. Enjoy the moment”, Federer said.

Cheered on by the crowd, Federer thought he had forced a deciding set with a serve out wide, but a Del Potro challenge showed it to be out and the Swiss then double faulted for 6-6.

“Borna was incredibly steady”, Federer said. “And when you’re thinking you can play offense all the time and then [Coric] catches you off-guard and you have to go back into defense, I felt like maybe in the beginning it wasn’t happening naturally”.