Welcome to the Sunday Finals at the BNP Paribas Open 2014. With all of the remaining matches on Stadium-1, my wife and I hopped a flight home from Indian Wells yesterday…just in time for another 3-inches of snow in the Midwest! Meanwhile, the doubles champions were crowned, while Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic earned their spots in Men’s Final.
First up, Roger Federer had no trouble with Rafa-Slayer Alexandr Dolgopolov. In only their second meeting over the past four years, Roger dominated the Ukrainian in two quick sets. Though he’s played his share of tie-breaks at this year’s tournament, Federer has yet to drop a set in pursuit of his 5th title at Indian Wells. Now 19-2 on the season, Roger has won 11 consecutive matches and the title in Dubai since his three-set defeat to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open Semfinals. Alex is now 15-8, but brings a ton of momentum into Key Biscayne for the Sony Open. After a Finals appearance in Rio and two conseutive Semifinals appearances in Acapulco and Indian Wells, don’t be surprised to see Dolgopolov go deep into the draw again on the hard-courts of South Florida.
Novak Djokovic had a tougher battle with 2012 Indian Wells Finalist John Isner; in fact, yesterday was a rematch of their third-set tie-break Semifinal two years ago. Up a set and into a second-set tie-break, the #2 Player in the World couldn’t close against the towering American…only managing to pick up two points. Pissed off at himself, the Serb elevated his game in the third and mercilessly elimated Isner 6-1. A two-time champion here (2008 and 2011), today will be Novak’s fourth visit to the Indian Wells Final. He’s now 11-2 on the season, with his only losses coming in the Australian Open Quaterfinals (Stanislas Wawrinka) and the Dubai Semifinals (Roger Federer). John Isner heads to Miami after playing a lot of tennis in the desert, including five tie-break sets. We’ll see how his knees and ankles can handle another scorching two weeks of Masters-1000 play in the South Florida sun.
Doubles Champions were crowned Saturday evening, as Bob and Mike Bryan proved last year wasn’t a fluke. In their 16th trip to Indian Wells, the twins convincingly defended their title over Peya and Soares. It’s their 95th career title together, and as Mike said during one of our post-match interviews – “100” sure seems like a nice, magical round number try and snag. Bob and Mike head to Miami as two-champions at the Sony Open…though last year, coming off an Indian Wells championship, they were eliminated in 1st-Round play by Max Mirnyi and Mikhail Youzhny.
Shuai Peng and Su-Wei Hsieh are still undefeated in WTA Finals. With a two-set win over Cara Black and Sania Mirza, the #1 and #2 Players in the World have now hoisted 11 doubles trophies together. Last night was their first at Indian Wells. Since their 2nd-Round three-set loss to Shahar Peer and Silvia Soler-Espinosa at the Australian Open, Peng and Hsieh have won 9 consecutive matches together and two titles: Doha and Indian Wells. Peng has actually won three titles since Melbourne, also winning Pattaya City with Shuai Zhang.
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Men’s Singles Semifinal Results…
- [2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [12] J Isner (USA) 75 67(2) 61
- [7] R Federer (SUI) d [28] A Dolgopolov (UKR) 63 61
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Men’s Doubles Champions…
- [1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [2] A Peya (AUT) / B Soares (BRA) 64 63
>> MEN’S SINGLES DRAW || >> MEN’S DOUBLES DRAW
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Women’s Doubles Champions…
- [1] S Hsieh (TPE) / S Peng (CHN) d [5] C Black (ZIM) / S Mirza (IND) 76(5) 62
>> WOMEN’S SINGLES DRAW || >> WOMEN’S DOUBLES DRAW
STADIUM 1 – Sunday Finals start at 12:00 noon
WTA – SINGLES FINAL – [20] F Pennetta (ITA) vs [2] A Radwanska (POL)
Not Before 2:00 pm
ATP – SINGLES FINAL – [7] R Federer (SUI) vs [2] N Djokovic (SRB)
