KRISTEN’S KOURT: Federer Flawless in Quest for Title Defense

Written by: Staff on 12th March 2013

KRISTEN'S KOURT: Federer Flawless in Quest for Title Defense

epa03619684 Roger Federer of Switzerland keeps his eye on the ball during his match against Ivan Dodig of Croatia at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 11 March 2013. Federer won the match. EPA/PAUL BUCK |

By Kristen Tracy

If there was ever any doubt about Roger Federer’s ability to defend his title here at the BNP Paribas Open, it should have all been erased after his impressively flawless 6-3, 6-1 win over Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the third round.

Federer hasn’t shown much struggle in his first two rounds down here in the sunny California desert, but it’s no secret that Indian Wells is one of his favorite places to play. And who can blame him? The guy has won here four times already. And so far, his quest for a fifth title has been nothing but smooth sailing. His first round match against Denis Istomin got off a bit of a rocky start (and by rocky, I mean nothing more than the fact that it went to a tiebreak), but it was nothing the Swiss couldn’t fend off and easily cruised in the second set to finish off the match in less than an hour – 58 minutes and 10 seconds, to be exact.

Today’s match didn’t really seem to be much different – although I have to admit that my heart did skip a little beat when he immediately got down 0/40 in his first service match. But he quickly rectified that situation and cruised through the rest of the match in 61 minutes without so much as a hesitation.

Though he is the tournament’s defending champion, Federer hasn’t hoisted a trophy since August, when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, OH. He continues on in his quest to defend his title and will face either Lleyton Hewitt (who took out last year’s runner-up John Isner) or Stanislas Wawrinka, who beat another American Wayne Odesknik.

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Topics: BNP Paribas tennis news, croatia tennis news, Federer, Ivan Dodig, John Isner, roger, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Swiss tennis news, Tennis News