Stan Strolls Into First Indian Wells Final

Third seed Stan Wawrinka is through to the BNP Paribas Open final after his most dominant display of the tournament saw him beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals on Saturday in Indian Wells. The 31-year-old Wawrinka is bidding to win his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown this week, to add to his 2014 Monte-Carlo title. He will face either Roger Federer or Jack Sock in the championship match.

The Swiss had beaten Carreno Busta in their previous two FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings and had the Spaniard under pressure early at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. After being denied a break-point chance in the sixth game, the Swiss created two more opportunities in the eighth game and converted his first with a forehand winner.

In a nine-minute, 53-second third game of the second set, Wawrinka converted his fifth break point to assume a 2-1 lead. From there, the Lausanne native pulled away, breaking again in the seventh game before claiming victory in 65 minutes. The Swiss – a three-time Grand Slam champion – dropped only 10 points on serve in the contest. “I mixed a lot of speed and spin. It’s not always easy here. I was mixing it up, so it was not easy for him to find a solution,” said Wawrinka.

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Wawrinka got through to his first semi-final in Indian Wells the hard way, winning his previous two matches against Yoshihito Nishioka and Dominic Thiem in third set tie-breaks. The tough battles helped bring out his best form, Wawrinka said. “[They helped] a lot. Especially against Thiem, it was a high-quality match. It helps when you win those tough matches. Today I was expecting a tough one. I’m really happy to get through to the final for the first time.”

The right-hander has a 12-3 mark on the season, highlighted up till now by semi-finals in Brisbane (l. to Nishikori) and at the Australian Open (l. to Federer).

Carreno Busta had saved two match points in overcoming Pablo Cuevas in the quarter-finals to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final. The 25-year-old Spaniard drops to 0-15 against Top 10 players. He came into Indian Wells in a rich vein of form, having reached semi-finals in Buenos Aires (l. to Dolgopolov) and Sao Paulo (l. to Cuevas) as well as finishing runner-up in Rio de Janeiro (l. to Thiem). The Spaniard is projected to break into the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time on Monday.