Roger Federer Vs Juan Ignacio Chela: BNP Paribas Open Preview
Swiss Roger Federer, second seed here, will take on 29th seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday. And Federer is a heavy favourite in this duel.
The former world number one, Federer is in his top form. He has a 68-13 win-loss record over the last 12 months and he has a 15-2 win-loss record this season, so far. He started the season by winning the title at Doha. The Swiss
was ousted by Serb Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals. Federer again met defeat at the hands of the Serb a few weeks later when he made it all the way to the final at Dubai, failing to clinch a title win. In Indian Wells, the 29-year-old Federer
overpowered Russian Igor Andreev in straight sets with a 7-5, 7-6 score line to advance to this spot.
Federer, who has won a hat-trick of titles at Indian Wells since 2004, will face world number 32, Chela. Recently the Argentine has enjoyed top form as well though he may not have been as lucky as he would have wished. Sporting
a 7-3 win loss record for his last ten matches, Chela has twice come close to the title only to lose it to someone else. Perhaps Lady luck wasn’t on his side, since he made a semi-final run at Costa do Sauipe before losing to top seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro
and he reached the finals at Buenos Aires the following week where he again lost to Almagro. Playing in the first Masters event of the season, Chela a seeded player received a bye into the second round where he bounced back against German Philipp Petzschner
to defeat him 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Having played five times before, the Swiss ace leads the head to head 5-0. Federer’s most recent win against Chela came at the 2010 Toronto hard court with a score line of 7-6(7), 6-3.
Looking at their last match statistics, Chela had a higher first serve percentage of 75 percent as opposed to Federer’s 54 percent. However the Swiss hammered four aces and earned an impressive 92 percent win on his first serve
as compared to Argentinean’s three aces and 75 percent win on his first serve. Chela also had a higher return points winning percentage of 45 percent than Federer’s 35 percent.
Given the psychological c*m statistical advantage that Federer enjoys, it is safe to bet that the Swiss would emerge victorious in tonight’s match. Chela will have to bring much more than his A-game if he wishes to upset the world
number two.
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