There was only one person happier than Roger Federer with the way his backhand performed on Wednesday in his spectacular display of aggression to defeat Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 in the BNP Paribas Open fourth round. That was his father Robert, who witnessed from courtside the laser-like backhands cannonball past the Spaniard. “First thing he told me after the match was 'Great match, great backhands,” said Federer, speaking to Tennis Channel. "He's basically been the first guy to tell me, ‘Hit the backhand, damn it! Don't fall back and slice all the time." Victory at Indian Wells marked the first time Federer had beaten Nadal three times in a row in their gladiatorial 36 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings. On numerous...
• Top 10 players and Top 2 Pablos will battle in the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals on Thursday when No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka meets No. 8 seed Dominic Thiem and No. 21 seed Pablo Carreno Busta faces No. 27 seed Pablo Cuevas. Three of the four boast one-handed backhands (Wawrinka, Thiem and Cuevas) and all four are bidding for their first Indian Wells semi-final. • Wawrinka rallied Wednesday after lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka served for their fourth-round match twice. The top-ranked Swiss owns a 2-1 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record against Thiem. He is 0-2 in Indian Wells quarter-finals, falling to Novak Djokovic in 2008 and Roger Federer in 2011. Wawrinka has reached as many ATP World Tour...
Ahead of this year's BNP Paribas Open, Pablo Cuevas shared that his best ATP World Tour Masters 1000 win had come against Andy Roddick at the 2011 Miami Open presented by Itau. The 31-year-old Uruguayan may have a new answer following a terrific start to his Masters 1000 campaign in 2017. He reached his first semi-final at this elite level with victory over #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev on Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open. "In these last two years, I was pursuing a different calendar to what I'd been doing the previous years, trying to be ready for the Masters 1000s, to be able to sit here in this chair and make it to the semi-finals," said Cuevas. "I'm glad...
Roger Federer expresses his delight at beating his long-time rival Rafael Nadal on Wednesday for a place in the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals. Watch live matches at tennistvcom.
