Federer Sails Into Indian Wells 4th Round

Roger Federer's quest for a 28th Masters 1000 title remains on course as he dismantled World Number 28 Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 6-1 in just 58 minutes at the BNP Paribas Open.

The Swiss who is on a 14 match winning streak played fluidly throughout, reeling off seventeen points in a row en route to taking a 6-2, 3-0 lead before closing it out in style to move into the fourth round where he'll face Jeremy Chardy.

Quick Match Recap

Krajinovic won the toss and elected to receive. Fed held to 30 for 1-0. The Serb then found himself in immediate trouble as Federer dispatched a second serve to help set up two break points which he converted for 2-0.

Consolidating the break seemed like a formality given how he'd started but after saving two break points to make deuce Roger fired a forehand wide on the third to hand the break straight back. Krajinovic then levelled for 2-2 but from there Roger took control firing down a love hold and breaking with some crisp ball striking to lead 4-2. Another love hold put the Swiss up 5-2 and by the time he'd bagged the set 6-2 he'd won 11 points in a row.

Into set two and a third love hold in succession put Roger up 1-0, sealing game point with a genius drop shot. Krajinovic was looking out of ideas by now and a good challenge from Roger on break point saw him break for 2-0. Love hold number four sealed with an ace on game point saw him move 3-0 in front and although Krajinovic held for 1-3 it was the last time he'd trouble the scoreboard as Roger sailed home to take it 6-1.

Match Stats

Highlights

Thoughts on the Match

A much cleaner performance here from Fed and we can say with certainty he's definitely better in matches that only last a day 🙂

I didn't realise until after the match but he's practised with Krajinovic a few times including here in Indian Wells a couple of years back and he had the Serb figured out early. Unlike the second round where he was a bit tense, Fed was at the races in this one from the word go, causing Krajinovic lots of problems by taking it early and mixing it up with some sweet angles and spins.

Krajinovic's style helped too as it gave Fed some nice rhythm from the back of the court and once he was feeling the ball nicely on the strings it was all she wrote. Grabbing the early lead he went into complete relax mode where the instinctive shots flowed and he was carving out drop shots for fun that Krajinovic, who's a decent mover, was getting nowhere near. Naturally, Fed's nonchalance sent Krajinovic in the other direction as he looked tight, and his usually solid backhand leaked key errors and giving him no way back from two breaks down in the second.

So fun to watch and the daytime conditions seem to suit Roger's game nicely as even though the ball does bounce high it travels through the air that bit quicker. As a result, when he takes it early it allows him to take charge of the point which he'll need should he face the bigger hitters that plough through the court.

Predictions vs. Chardy

Next up is Jeremy Chardy who's had some decent wins this week beating Benneteau, Fognini and now Mannarino. The Frenchman has seen his ranking slide in recent seasons and he's not really done anything of note but he's given Fed a tough test on a number of occasions and has a victory against him dating back to 2014 in Rome.

Fed, however, leads the H2H 3-1 and has won the last two so I make him favourite to win in straights. I don't think Chardy is the same player that was Top 30 three or four years ago but 8 of his  10 wins against top 10 players have come on hard courts and he has decent power from the baseline if he gets it going so Roger will need to be sharp. If he plays anywhere close to today's level he comes out on top.

What did you guys think of today's match? Let me know in the comments.