Juan Martin del Potro has finished Roger Federer’s winning streak and won the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells after defending three match points in a great game.
The 36-year-old Swiss played 17 matches in a row, but Federer had already had to fight hard against Borna Coric in the semi-finals. In the Indian Wells final, however, the 20-time major winner found his champion in Juan Martin del Potro: the Argentinian won 6-4, 6-7(8) and 7-6 (2) after 2:42 hours and thus celebrated his 22nd victory in the final. Title on the ATP tour.
Del Potro played the first set almost flawlessly: Although the direct points were balanced with eleven each, the man from Tandil made only three slight mistakes in contrast to Federer. The decisive break was achieved by the easy outsider to 3:2. After 34 minutes del Potro had set one with 6:4 on his side with a to zero game.
At the beginning of the second round, the defending champion had to fend off two break points again, this time Federer did not let his serve down. As a return player, however, the 20-time major champion did not really get into the match, del Potro’s service basically worked perfectly. Until the tenth game: Federer suddenly had two break chances, synonymous with set points. The first was fended off by del Potro with a forehand shot, the second by a ball of Federer. The decision had to be made in the tiebreak.
There Federer missed three set points, the last one with a double mistake. del Potro fended off the sixth set point for the Swiss with a serve to the body, but missed his first match point with a simple forehand error. Federer then took his seventh chance, the stadium was upside down.
Before the decisive set, del Potro had an intensive exchange with chair referee Fergus Murphy – the audience had repeatedly disturbed the serve rhythm of the Argentinian. Until the ninth game the serve dominated – then Federer used his second break chance in the set with a risky backhand return. In his own service, Federer initially missed three match points, del Potro actually managed the equaliser. Once again we went into the tiebreak.
Federer made a double mistake right at the start, del Potro made a perfect backhand return, quickly setting the score to 3:0. Federer did not recover any more, served another double error. The Swiss player was still able to fend off a match point, but after 2’42” del Potro scored his second championship point.
In a direct comparison, Federer was ahead of Indian Wells with 18:6 wins, and the Basel bidder had also won the last two games in Basel and Shanghai. The last big duel, in the quarter-finals of the US Open 2017, however, had gone to del Potro. Both players will now travel to Miami – they played against each other there last year, Federer won in two sets.