ATP: Federer to catch up in Indian Wells final

Top seeded Roger Federer has made it to the Indian Wells final after catching up and is reaching for his sixth title in the Californian desert. The 20-time Grand Slam Champion defeated the 49th World Rankings. Borna Coric from Croatia with 5:7, 6:4, 6:4, after he had already covered in the second heat with a break and 2:4. Federer remains unconquered this year and has reached a new milestone in his career with 17:0 successes. He had never started a season so well.

In his first semifinal at a Masters 1000 event, Coric initially presented himself extremely cool and relentlessly exploited the unfamiliar weaknesses of defending champion Federer. The Swiss, again with a three-day beard by the way, had problems with the service in his eleventh Indian Wells preliminary round game. In the first round he only brought 52 percent of his first serves into the field, making twelve unforced mistakes, while only seven winners went to him.

Coric waited for his chances on the crowded Centre Court in the Tennis Garden – and then struck mercilessly. At 5-5, the 21-year-old used his second break point to pass Federer on the net. Until then, Coric had only lost five points on his own serve. No wonder that he managed to get his service through immediately afterwards and thus deservedly won the opening set.

Previously, Coric, one of the NextGen stars, had twice reached the quarter-finals of a Masters – 2016 in Cincinnati and 2017 in Madrid. At the beginning of the second set he did not let up and broke the number one again. The youngster from Zagreb once again proved his nerves of steel by defending three consecutive break chances for the maestro at 2:1. The underdog acted courageously, while Federer, in his 61st year of life, was in the lead. Masters semi-final (previously 46:14 victories) seemed unusually nervous for a long time and could set few direct winning strokes.

The audience was clearly behind the 36-year-old superstar, who had already triumphed five times in Indian Wells. In front of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with whom Federer had recently played at a charity event, the industry leader turned in the second half when he finally took Coric off the serve for the first time in his sixth attempt. A little later Federer was able to equalize the sets in windy conditions.

The game remained exciting, but was rarely of the highest quality. Coric scored another break in the ominous seventh game, but Federer immediately equalled the score at 4-4 – and then gave up no more game. After 2:20 hours he turned his first match point.

In the final of the $7.972 million California desert tournament on Sunday, Federer will face either Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina/No. 6) or the Canadian Milos Raonic, who is only in 32nd place after a series of injuries.