Indian Wells: Live Day Four Round Up
March 15, 2010 · Print This Article
by: Nima Naderi
Indian Wells, CA—Top seed Roger Federer won his first match since Australia on Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1.
Winning the first set in routine fashion, Federer won 100 percent of his first serve points (11-11) while breaking Hanescu’s serve on one occasion. What appeared to be a straight set win by the Swiss superstar, quickly became a second set battle. Breaking Federer’s serve to lead 5-2, Hanescu utilized his fluid one-handed backhand and competent serve to force his mighty rival to the brink of a third set.
Hanescu would falter while serving for the set at 5-3, only to gain an early advantage in the tiebreak to force a deciding set.
Regaining momentum to begin the third set, Federer broke Hanescu’s serve on two occasions to defeat his 6′5″ opponent for the fifth straight time.
A relaxed, and eager to be back to competition Federer spoke with his media after his victory.
“I was happy with the way I played,” he said. “Not having played for so long, I thought it was a good match overall. Missed maybe some of the clutch serving when I really needed it. Let’s say 30-all, deuce I couldn’t really get that one perfect serve I was sometimes looking for, but that’s something that happens.”
Receiving three awards after his victory: The 2009 Player of the Year, ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite Player of the Year, and the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, Federer was grateful to his fans and peers for his awards.
“I’d like to thank the fans for voting for me,” Federer said to the crowd after receiving the Fan Favorite Award for a seventh straight year. “You guys are amazing. Thank you. As you know, you guys make this even more worthwhile traveling around the globe from January to November. I love coming back here, so it’s very nice to get presented the awards here.”
Federer will next face Marcos Baghdatis, who won a marathon first set over Arnaud Clement, before prevailing 7-6 (7), 6-1. The first set between Baghdatis and Clement lasted 90-minutes.
Elsewhere, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick marched into the third-round round with 6-4, 6-4 victories. Murray dismissed Andreas Seppi during the heat of the day session, while Roddick bounced Yen-Hsun Lu under the cool night conditions in Palm Springs.
Murray, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final, told reporters that he wasn’t expecting much from his form on Sunday.
“You’re not necessarily hitting the ball as well as you have been in practice. You don’t know if it’s tension. You’re just a little bit surprised, maybe.
“But, saying that, when you haven’t played for a long time, you have to expect not to play your best the first match out. I’m sure next round out I’ll feel fine.”
Roddick, who recently endured a right shoulder injury, struck 10 aces while winning 78 percent of his first serve points.
Roddick told reporters that he was happy to survive the onslaught of his talented opponent.
“He was coming out of his shoes on every shot,” said Roddick of Lu’s performance. “So it was more of a, you know, you’re just trying to fight him off a bit.”
“I was really happy the way I returned tonight,” continued the 28-year-old. “I felt like I made a lot of returns, so that put pressure on him, you know, to come up with it.”
Roddick will next face Thiemo De Bakker, while Murray will face Michael Russell.
Other winners on day four action included: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, and James Blake.
No. 5 seed Nikolay Davydenko was forced to withdraw from the event due to a broken left wrist. Davydenko originally sustained the injury while falling against Soderling during the semifinals of the Rotterdam event in February. Davydenko’s scheduled third-round opponent, Viktor Troicki will receive a walkover into the fourth-round.
Monday’s order of play will feature: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Fernando Verdasco.
Quotes courtesy of ASAP.
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