FEDERER, NADAL AVOID EARLY-ROUND DRAMA IN INDIAN WELLS BNP PARIBAS OPEN BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 16th March 2015

FEDERER, NADAL AVOID EARLY-ROUND DRAMA IN INDIAN WELLS BNP PARIBAS OPEN BY RICKY DIMON

epa04664324 Roger Federer of Switzerland in action against Diego Schwartzman of Argentina during their second round match at the 2015 BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 15 March 2015. EPA/PAUL BUCK |

The early stages of the BNP Paribas Open have not been lacking drama in men’s singles. A combined six matches in the first and second rounds ended in third-set tiebreakers.

Winning those thrillers were Ryan Harrison (d. Mardy Fish), Diego Shwartzman (d. Jerzy Janowicz), Andrey Golubev (d. Dustin Brown), David Ferrer (d. Ivan Dodig), Grigor Dimitrov (d. Nick Kyrgios), and Jack Sock (d. Gilles Muller).

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal endured no such dram when they contested their opening matches on Sunday. Federer closed out the day session with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Schwartzman before Nadal kicked off the night session by hammering Igor Sijsling by the exact same scoreline.

“I’m very happy,” Federer assured after facing no break points over the course of just one hour and three minutes. “I’m happy I got the first match out of the way. Today I actually thought I [was] moving well, which is key on this surface because the easy shots and easy points are not going to happen so easily here like they maybe do in Dubai or Australia or the indoor season.

“Schwartzman can be tough. He can take time away from you and take charge from the baseline. I was successful playing on my terms. There are certain things I can do better, but for a first round it’s a good start.”

Nadal’s 6-4, 6-2 win saw him break serve right away in each set to take complete control. The Spaniard saved the only break point he faced and won 22 of 23 first-serve points.

Rafael Nadal of Spain in action against Igor Sijsling of The Netherlands during their second round match at the 2015 BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 15 March 2015. EPA/MICHAEL NELSON

“I’m very happy the way I played,” Nadal said. “I played with not many mistakes, winning a good percentage of points with my serve. One very important thing for me are the movements, and I think I moved myself a little bit quicker tonight than what I was doing one month ago.

“So in general, I was able to defend some points well, to have some good passing shots, have some winners, some good shots down the line with my forehand.”

Next up for Nadal is fellow lefty Donald Young, while Federer gets a rematch with Andreas Seppi. The Italian recently stunned Federer at the Australian Open.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: BNP Paribas Open, BNPPO15, Federer, Indian Wells, Rafa Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Sports, Tennis News

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

March 16, 2015 at 4:32 pm

@rogerfederer, @RafaelNadal AVOID EARLY-ROUND DRAMA IN #IndianWells @BNPPARIBASOPEN BY @Dimonator- http://t.co/nqcAAWzdGN #BNPPO15 #tennis