Federer Opens Bid For Sixth Indian Wells Title

It is rare these days Roger Federer has a score to settle with an opponent he has lost to and never beaten before. The defending BNP Paribas Open champion will earn that chance on Saturday when he takes on Federico Delbonis in the second round.

Federer trails the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head ledger 0-1 after the Argentine prevailed on clay in Hamburg in 2013. Delbonis advanced to the second-round showdown after he saved two match points to deny American Ryan Harrison in three sets.

Much like their lone prior encounter, the No. 67 in the ATP Rankings will look to dictate play with his powerful lefty forehand against the five-time Indian Wells champion. Delbonis’s best result came two years ago when he stunned then No. 2 Andy Murray to reach the fourth round.

Federer is contesting his 450th match at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level, having compiled a 350-99 record. He is bidding for a record sixth BNP Paribas Open title – his 28th Masters 1000 crown – and arrives having reclaimed the No. 1 ATP Ranking with his 97th ATP World Tour title in Rotterdam.

Should the Swiss bow out before the semi-finals, though, he will relinquish the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal. Federer is undefeated in 2018 having also successfully defended his Australian Open crown in January.

The man Federer defeated for the title in Rotterdam, Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov, will open his Indian Wells campaign on Saturday against talented Spanish lefty Fernando Verdasco. In a match sure to fill the Hot Shots reels, Dimitrov will carry a 2-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head record into the match but the pair hasn’t met since 2015.

Dimitrov is coming off a surprise opening loss to Malek Jaziri in Dubai, while Verdasco fell in the opening round in Acapulco to Diego Schwartzman. Former World No. 7 Verdasco also lost to Schwartzman in the final of the Rio Open in the week before.

Opening the day’s play on Stadium 1, it will be a battle of the single-handed backhands when Austrian No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem meets #NextGenATP Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas for the second time. Thiem prevailed in two tight sets in the quarter-finals in Doha in January but saw enough in his opponent to suggest the 19-year-old could rise to at least the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings. Tsitsipas took down Moldovan Radu Albot in his opening match.

In an all-#NextGenATP showdown, American Taylor Fritz will square off for the first time against Russian World No. 27 Andrey Rublev for a place in the third round. Fritz saved a match point in his opening match against his groomsman, #NextGenATP American Reilly Opelka. Rublev started the year with a runner-up showing in Doha while Fritz owns a 14-3 record on the ATP Challenger Tour this season.

A year ago, Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas held match two match points at the BNP Paribas Open before falling to Pablo Carreno Busta in a quarter-final thriller. On Saturday, the No. 30 seed faces a stern test in his 2018 Indian Wells opener against #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

The 18-year-old Shapovalov cruised past Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis in his first-round match. Both are coming off recent semi-final runs, with Cuevas reaching the last four at last week’s Sao Paulo Open on clay and Shapovalov progressing as far on hard court at the Delray Beach Open in late February.