Juan Martin del Potro has upset Roger Federer 6-4 6-7 (8) 7-6 (2) in an epic BNP Paribas Open final at Indian Wells.
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Juan Martin del Potro was taken aback by his triumphant display at the Indian Wells Masters, where he dethroned defending champion Roger Federer in a thrilling final.
Juan Martin Del Potro then outlasted Federer in a three-set, 2 hour and 48 minute men’s singles championship match that required two tiebreakers, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (2) and featured some first class shotmaking (as well as the sight of both players yapping at the chair umpire).
It was Del Potro’s 11 consecutive match win and second title in a row, having won the Acapulco title two weeks ago.
“Borna played a great match”. I’ve never won a title like this and I think it’s time to celebrate for a little bit, and then think about Miami which is one of my favourite tournaments on tour. He started in ideal fashion by claiming the first set, but if he hoped taking an early lead would get the crowd on his side, he was wrong. “If it’s going to stop working, I will change my game up again maybe”.
The standard wasn’t always ideal – both players made uncharacteristic unforced errors as Del Potro’s forehand failed him and Federer’s backhand didn’t come to the party. “That give me the control of the match”, said Del Potro, who has finally put behind him the devastating wrist injuries that almost led him to retire. “I mean, when you’re in the game for long enough and successfully enough, these things just tend to happen… just shows me that I have played Indian Wells a lot, I have liked it a lot, and I kind of like the conditions here”.
Federer needed to make the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open to retain his number one ranking.
The crowd erupted when Federer broke Coric to love to take the deciding set and end the unexpectedly competitive 2hr 20min battle against the 21-year-old Croat on a windy morning in the California desert.
“It was surprising to see him [Raonic] serving not too hard, and I broke his serve very quick in both sets”, he said.
The Argentine has regained form over the last two seasons but although he entered Sunday’s final on a 10-match winning streak, he was still inevitably playing underdog to Swiss world number one Federer. The headline of that story pronounced del Potro as a “lovable spoiler”.
“First of all I want to congratulate Roger to a great week and great success in this historical year”. Updates with Del Potro win.
Addressing the crowd he added: “Thank you very much for the respect in this final, you were an unbelievable atmosphere”.
“I got depressed at home for a long while, and I wasn’t happy doing the effort to recover my wrist”. “I really feel like I have another match I have to play tomorrow, and it didn’t really sink in that I won”.
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At 3-2 Federer challenged a Del Potro serve and was so confident he slammed his racket down on the point which he thought the ball had struck the court.
