*Halfway Mark Report*
Welcome to Week 2 of the BNP Paribas Open! Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are fairing pretty well as always… and apparently Nadal is back, ready to claim his rightful place at Indian Wells! Zvonareva is out, but gave it her all, and now all her fellow players remain to battle out the in the rush for the #1 spot.
There is still one more week left of this monsterly tournament, so if you want to see more spectacular performances, stick around.
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“I’m really sorry to withdraw from the tournament but unfortunately I’m not feeling well enough to compete today. Hopefully I can recover from the illness and play in the next event [Miami] but today I just don’t feel that I can go out there and perform well enough. Indian Wells is one the best tournaments on the WTA, I have great memories here and have won here in the past, so it’s a special place for me and I’m sorry I cannot play. I hope to come back here healthy next year.”
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Primetime at the BNP Paribas Open featured the Swiss Superstar Roger Federer against wild card entry Denis Kudla. Denis Kudla is a 19-yr-old American currently ranked #185 in the world; He won his first ATP 1000 level match earlier this week when he beat LL Tobias Kamke. Roger started off comfortably blocking back Kudla’s serves and groundstrokes, getting a feel for everything before settling in and taking control of rallies. Kudla’s inexperience and nerves showed as the young American committed many unforced errors. [READ MORE].
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By: Nathan M. Cuny
It was an effortless win for Roger Federer on Sunday the 11th of March, at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Federer defeated Denis Kudla, of the USA, 6-4, 6-1 in 57 minutes. The No. 185 player Kudla, battled it out with Tobias Kamke of Germany, in the tournament’s first round taking the win at 2-6, 7-6³, 6-4, before he was granted his shot against Federer. For being a young up-n-comer, Kudla played admirably considering Sunday night’s match was his first ever against current world No.3 Roger Federer.
During the first set Kudla showed promise by taking the first game. However, Federer soon had Kudla figured out quickly bringing the first set to 4-1. By that point, Kudla managed to squeeze in 3 more games, briefly saving himself until Federer crashed down on him, taking the set. [READ MORE].
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All eyes were on the world #2 from Spain Rafael Nadal as he took center stage at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The 2012 BNP Paribas Open is Nadal’s first tournament back on the ATP World Tour Circuit since the Australian Open in January. Nadal wasted no time today, pummeling Argentine Leonardo Mayer with a powerful display of forehands and serving (Nadal lost only 4 points on serve) . Banners, flags, pom poms and overall Nadal fans were in attendance and shouts of “Vamos Rafa!” could be heard during every game. Leonardo Mayer must’ve felt pretty lonely out there and produced glimpses of his own power game… [READ MORE].
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