Roger Federer has reached the semi-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. The defending champion defeated Hyeon Chung in two sets and remains the world’s number one.
The re-run of this year’s Australian Open lasted just over 80 minutes. At that time Chung had to give up early because of blisters and feet, this time the Swiss won 7:5 and 6:1. In the semi-final Federer will face the next #NextGen representative: Borna Coric, who beat Kevin Anderson for the first time.
After a balanced first set, Chung had three chances to lose Federer’s serve at the beginning of the round. The world number one, who will remain in this position due to this success, not only fought off his opponent’s advances, but also took the service of Chungs. Unlike at the beginning of the match, when Federer had also taken the lead with a break but could not defend it for the time being, the 20-time major winner only had a slight problem once: In the very last game Chung had one last chance for a mini comeback, but then Federer made everything clear with two aces.
The audience not only included the entire Federer clan, but also Microsoft founder Bill Gates. And a legend whose record Roger Federer has long since broken: Pete Sampras. They testified with the other fans the 16. Federer’s last match victory in a row was in 2006. After his success against Chung, Federer also stood guard when Tommy Haas announced his final resignation from professional tennis on Center Court.
Roger Federer will now play Borna Coric in the semi-finals on Saturday. In the only meeting to date, the Basel bidder had won through in Dubai in 2015. The second semi-final will only be known on Friday: The winner of the match between Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic will face either Philipp Kohlschreiber or Juan Martin del Potro.
Here the single tableau in Indian Wells