Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka upset Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez to reach final in Indian Wells
Swiss Roger Federer and his countryman Stanislas Wawrinka paired up to dump the title holders, Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez in straight set. They registered a 7-5, 6-3 score to advance to final at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open Men Doubles on Friday.
World’s top two singles, Number one Rafael Nadal and Number two Roder Federer faced each other for the third time in this epic doubles match. After winning this match, Federer lowered the trail in his double head to head against Nadal by 1-2. Nadal paired with Tommy Robredo to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Yves Allegro and Federer in second round in 2004. Top seed then teamed up with Carlos Moya to beat Federer and Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(5) in the first round at Rome in 2007. While in this event, Federer teamed up with his countryman Wawrinka to upset Nadal and Lopez and cruised to final.
Federer and Wawrinka trounced Bahaman Mark Knowles and Slovak Michal Mertinak with a breadstick. They converted four out of five breakpoint opportunities to earn a 6-1, 7-5 win over Knowles and Mertinak in 65 minutes in the quarter-finals. The last time winning combination of Nadal and Lopez overpowered Czech Lukas Dlouhy and Australian Paul Hanley in tough three set by 7-5, (3)6-7, 10-7 to reach this spot.
In the opening set, both pairs were playing at their top form and displayed their best tennis. They held on to their serves until the Swiss pair broke service to get the lead at 6-5. After this, Nadal double faulted at the set point allowing Federer and Wawrinka to win the set 7-5. They also had a higher first serve share of 77 percent as compared to the title holder’s 49 percent, and they registered an impressive 79 percent win on it.
In the final set, both pairs levelled each other out and had a similar first serve percentage of 50 percent but the Swiss team managed to edge past the title holders by converting the only breakpoint opportunity to their advantage. They also earned a spectacular 92 percent win on it and hammered three massive aces to win the set with a 6-3 score line.
Federer has a chance to win both the singles and the doubles title at this ATP world tour event. He will face Novak Djokovic in the singles semi-finals on Saturday and in doubles, he along with Wawrinka will face the first time pairing, Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov and Belgian Xavier Malisse, in the finals. They dumped the Indo Pak Express by 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 in 74 minutes to reach this spot.
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