Federer, Anderson Battle Young Stars In Indian Wells QF Thursday

Pre-match build-up swirled around the battle of the generations – Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung against 36-year-old defending champion Roger Federer in the Australian Open semi-finals this year. It was the tournament where Chung, the explosive 21-year-old, became the first Korean to progress as far at a Grand Slam tournament.

On Thursday, a rematch is on the cards with a BNP Paribas Open semi-final berth at stake. In January, blisters ultimately derailed Chung’s chances of completing the match with Federer, who went on to capture his 20th Grand Slam title.

This is Chung’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final and a win over the defending champion would see Federer lose his grip on No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Victory for the Swiss would see him close to within two wins of a record sixth Indian Wells title.

On Wednesday, Chung raced past last year’s quarter-finalist Pablo Cuevas 6-1, 6-3. Since claiming the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals (d. Rublev) in Milan in November, the Korean has notched a 15-5 record already in 2018.

Federer has been clinical in his dismissal of three opponents without the loss of a set so far in his 2018 Indian Wells campaign. The top seed won all 25 first-serve points on his way past Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday.

South African No. 7 seed Kevin Anderson will look to continue his impressive hard-court form of late when he meets 21-year-old Croatian Borna Coric in the other men’s quarter-final on Thursday. The big-serving 31-year-old has not dropped a set in three prior FedExATP Head2Head encounters with the Croatian, a 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier.

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Federer vs Chung | Coric vs Anderson

One of those victories came in the third round of last year’s US Open, at which Anderson went on to reach his maiden Grand Slam final (l. to Nadal). The South African came from a set down to beat last year’s Indian Wells semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta for the fourth straight time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series on Wednesday.

With a new team, including coaches Riccardo Piatti and Kristijan Schneider, Coric has mounted somewhat of a resurgence at Indian Wells. Back in the Top 50 in the ATP Rankings, the Croatian dropped just nine games in his opening three rounds before stamping his authority on #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz in a three-set fourth-round clash. Like his fellow 21-year-old Chung, he will bid to reach a maiden Masters 1000 semi-final.