Federer and Kyrgios set up blockbuster QF at Indian Wells

Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios came through their blockbuster 4th round encounters at Indian Wells in straight sets on Wednesday. While the victories were not entirely surprising (given recent head-to-head record), the scorelines definitely were. One would've expected Nadal and Djokovic, respectively, to take the match to the decider. However, both Federer and Kyrgios relentlessly stuck to a very aggressive game plan and neither of them offered any window of opportunity to their opponents. This ensured that they are now, the last men standing in this "Quarter of Death".

Djokovic - Kyrgios: Acapulco to California

This match was a repeat of the quarter final match in Acapulco (Mexican Open), a couple of weeks back. Then, Kyrgios had upset Djokovic in two close sets 7-6(9), 7-5. Who would have thought that the brilliant-but-inconsistent Kyrgios will outmatch that superlative performance with such a powerful display at Indian Wells that by the time the match ended, Djokovic was left dazed, unsure and frustrated.

Kyrgios gave a superlative serving performance, sending down 14 aces, winning 86% of first serves and he also denied Djokovic any break point opportunity. The last bit was crucial, coming as it was, against one of the best returners of all time. In his 6-4, 7-6(3) victory achieved in 112 mins, the Aussie blasted 25 winners and made just 19 unforced errors. Contrast this with Djokovic, who made 25 unforced errors, a lot of them from his normally reliable backhand side. This defeat ended the three-time defending champion's 19-match winning streak at Indian Wells. The tall Canberra native broke Djokovic in the very first game of the match and, even though he had chances to go double-break up in the 3rd and 7th games, this lone break was enough to secure the opening set. The second set was much closer with Djokovic holding his service more comfortably until the 11th game, where he had to fend off two break points to force the set into a tie-breaker. Here too, Kyrgios was way too powerful, going up a mini-break very early on and thoroughly dominated the tie-break to win it 7 points to 3.

Apart from his massive service, Kyrgios managed to stay with Djokovic in most of the long rallies. His ability to constantly change directions & pace on his groundstrokes did not allow Djokovic to settle into any rhythm. Plus, he took a lot of service returns very early, winning 30% of first serve return points and managed to upstage Djokovic even in this aspect. No wonder, the Serb was so frustrated that he constantly berated himself and even smashed his racquet to pieces after losing the first set.

Fedal: Season '17 Episode 02!

When the draw for the tournament was out, the first match-up everybody took note of, was the potential 4th round encounter between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. After all, this would be their earliest meeting in any tournament since their first ever encounter in Miami 13 years ago. The fact that this 4th round encounter was taking place after a high-octane Australian Open final, contested by these two only six weeks ago, made it even more promising. 

Federer had defeated Nadal at the Australian Open by employing a very aggressive game-plan where he was taking his shots very early, keeping the points shorter and flattening out his backhand (instead of using slice). Even though the surface at Indian Wells is much slower than the one at Rod Laver arena, Federer wasn't going to abandon this game plan. He broke Nadal in the very first game of the match, hitting two winners, hitting hard & deep from both wings, taking the service very early and basically setting the template for the match. Nadal had a break point opportunity in the next game but Federer quickly snuffed that out with a huge serve and went on to hold, thereby consolidating his break. Alas, that was the last service break opportunity that Nadal had for the entire match. Federer broke Nadal again in the 5th game, winning the game via an exquisite backhand down-the-line return winner. He eventually won the first set 6-2. Although Rafa started the 2nd set confidently, Federer broke him in the 3rd game, sealing it with a screaming, inside-out forehand cross-court winner. Thereafter, Federer was rarely troubled on his service games and this enabled him to take more risks on Nadal's service games. This gamble eventually paid off as Federer broke Nadal again in the 9th game, winning the game, set and match with another backhand down-the-line return winner.

The utterly dominant 6-2, 6-3 win came in only 68 minutes and helped Federer close the H2H gap with Nadal (now stands at 23-13). The Swiss genius hit 5 aces and won 76% of first serve points, 75% of 2nd serve points and 44% of first return points. All these numbers were far superior to Nadal. In all, he hit 26 winners and made 17 unforced errors vis-a-vis Nadal who hit 10 winners and 15 unforced errors. Under Ljubicic, Federer seems to have a better game plan against Nadal. Also, the larger racquet head (which he adopted in 2014) seems to have made him more confident to hit flat / topspin backhands instead of slice (esp. on big points). Lastly, he's improved his defensive game as well, introducing a sort-of-loopy backhand when pushed into a defensive position - this shot is hit deep and gives Federer the chance to recover his court position and also elicits a weaker response from the opponent. 

Federer, Kyrgios and the path to glory!

Federer and Kyrgios will clash for a place in the semi-finals. In their only previous encounter, held on clay in 2015, Kyrgios had defeated Federer in three tight sets (all sets were decided by a tie-break). With Andy Murray already eliminated from the top half of the draw, the winner of this QF will have a good chance of going all the way. Given his recent form, Kyrgios will be quite confident of reaching his 3rd consecutive semi-final in tournaments this year. Federer, on the other hand, buoyed by his recent victories over Nadal, would be keen to win his 5th Indian Wells title, his 25th ATP Masters 1000 title and his 90th tournament overall. Whatever the outcome, we are all set for a potentially entertaining QF!