Indian Wells 2017 or BNP PARIBAS OPEN as you might want to call it, has maybe the toughest draw of all time with a possible Federer and Nadal match in round 4. Have a look at the madness here.
Whether or not we get another Fedal is hard to say. There are so many tough matches in a masters series tournament and the hashtag NextGeneration is knocking on the door. I will comment on some on the “fantastic four” and I urge you to join the discussion.
Andy Murray won in Dubai and has distanced himself a little bit from Novak Djokovic in the race for the world number one position. He looks confident and rested and will be hard to beat in Indian Wells. He is also a great performer in Masters tournaments, with 14 titles to his name. He’s my favorite for the title and has the most comfortable draw of the top players. This is what he said about it:
“It’s an amazing draw. I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s one of the toughest sections of a draw of all time.”
Novak Djokovic hasn’t been himself of late. The normal hunger and confidence to always reach the W is weakened and lesser players are starting to think they can beat him. Can he turn it around? Well, of course he can, the question is if he will. I have my doubts, but on the other hand Djokovic has won 5(!) Indian Wells titles.
Rafael Nadal played well in the Acapulco 500 tournament but lost in the final to Sam Querrey and is not his best on hard courts. Still, he looks healthy and ready to fight for titles again and if he squares up against Federer in the fourth round, I’d probably bet my money on him.
Roger Federer won the Australian Open in January, but played a lacklustre match against Evgeny Donskoy in Dubai and it’s hard to foresee what kind of mood the GOAT will be in at the BNP PARIBAS Open. He likes playing in Indian Wells and has four titles to his name. Being in the same quarter of the draw as Nadal and Djokovic won’t make it easy for him however. This is what he said about the challenging draw:
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve gone through so many draws. I came here to Indian Wells to play against those guys. So it doesn’t matter if it’s a semi, a final or actually a fourth round,” Federer said during his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday.
Outsiders:
Stan Wawrinka is unpredictable unless it’s best of five. Grigor Dimitrov looks likely to play his best season ever. Nick Kyrgios is a dark horse to go far. Same goes for Alexander Zverev. We also have Juan Martin Del Potro who is healthy and playing well. It is a jungle out there and there will be lots of hard-fought tennis matches in the coming week.
Please comment on who you think will win Indian Wells and why.
