Federer to Meet Dolgopolov in Indian Wells Semis
Roger Federer will meet Alexandr Dolgopolov in the semifinals of the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. On Thursday, Federer defeated the 17th-seeded Kevin Anderson 7-5, 6-1 for his eighth trip to the Indian Wells semis. Dolgopolov was a 6-3, 6-4 victor over the 10th-seeded Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-4. Federer is seeking his fifth singles title at Indian Wells, Dolgopolov is contesting in his first semi-final at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.
Last week, Federer won his 78th ATP Tour-level title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, moving past John McEnroe (77 titles) into third place on the Open Era title leaders list, behind Jimmy Connors (109) and Ivan Lendl (94). He is also looking to lift the doubles trophy in Indian Wells with his partner Stanislas Wawrinka, as the all-Swiss duo meet Alexander Peya & Bruno Soares on Friday in the men’s doubles semis.
"I was quite fast today," said Dolgopolov. "I was really happy with that. And I was able to get more returns than usually you can against him. He serves really big and I knew I had to do that, and I'm quite pleased how I anticipated on his serve and have seen the toss of the ball and was really, really concentrated to get those serves back."
Dolgopolov is the first player from Ukraine to reach this stage at a Masters 1000 tournament since Andrei Medvedev won the Hamburg title in 1997.
Federer and Dolgopolov have met only once over their careers, in 2010 at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where Federer was a winner when Dolgopolov retired due to an injury.
