Indian Wells R2: Federer Masterclass

Roger Federer opened his title defense on Saturday afternoon in Indian Wells with a thoroughly amazing 6-2, 6-3 win over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. The win, the 889th of his career, improved his record to 11-3 on the season.

Basically, Roger was incredible from start to finish. He broke in the opening game and got the double break a few games later to really open it up. He won the first set in 27 minutes. The second set was more of the same as he broke in the third game and again in the final game to wrap up a very impressive and convincing win over the big Uzbek.

Looking good sporting blue and orange.

The forehand was working tremendously well throughout the match, as well as I have seen him hit it in ages. He was really going after his shots on that side and his balls were cutting through the court quite well. After the first set, he was hitting the forehand 55% of the time cross court and 45% of the time down the line, which showed how he was spreading the court and working the bigger Istomin around the court. He also served spectacularly, getting his first serve in at a 72% clip and winning 96% of those first serve points (the loss of one point). He was 11/14 at net, hit 31 winners to 15 errors, and converted of 4/7 break point chances.

It was the best start Roger could ask for, and in his next match he won't be playing the man who beat him in Rotterdam, Julien Benneteau, as he was beaten in straights by Ivan Dodig, best known for beating Rafael Nadal in Montreal in 2011. So the revenge for that loss will have to wait until another day I'm afraid. The Fed should get by Dodig with ease if he plays half as well as he did against Istomin.

To wrap up the other action:

Rafa Nadal won his first official hardcourt match since Miami last year when he beat Ryan Harrison 76(3) 62. Kevin Anderson upset David Ferrer 36 64 63. Janko Tipsarevic was blasted off the court by the newly reformed Ernests Gulbis 62 60.  Similarly, Fernalndo Verdasco was embarrassed in a 61 60 loss to Jarko Nieminen. John Isner was upset by the always-resilient Lleyton Hewitt 67(6) 63 64. Tomas Berdych advanced easily, Richard Gasquet took out Bernard Tomic, Jerzy Janowicz beat David Nalbandian, and Gilles Simon saved three match points against Paoo Lorenzi to get through. Other seeds to fall were Mikhail Youzhny, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Benneteau, as previously mentioned.

Until next time, Kyle.