Photo Courtesy of Tony Chang

The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells was the sight of possibly the most star studded semifinals lineup in recent memory. Since Roland Garros of 2005, every men's singles major has been won by one of the four players. In the first semifinals of the day, 2009 US Open winner, Juan Martin Del Potro was defeated by Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4. After a slow start by Nadal, who was down 0-3 to start the match, he was able to find the range on his forehand and work his way into the match. Following solid performances from Del Potro in recent weeks, he appears to be slowly working his way back into the form that made him a dangerous threat before being sidelined by surgery on his right wrist. The speed, tenacity, and forehand of Nadal were enough to pull him through the match and into the finals.

In the second semifinal of the day, it was Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, competing for a spot in the final against Nadal, but probably more importantly, the number two spot in the rankings. Despite what announcers were calling a lingering issue with Novak's left knee, for the most part, he was moving well around the court, making Federer hit more and more shots. With a large amount of black tape around his left knee and up the thigh, there were moments when he did appear to favor it. Announcers claimed that his camp was mentioning possible tendinitis in the left knee. Despite a bit of a slow start, Djokovic was able to take the first set 6-3 by breaking twice.


Roger raised his level in the second, and a good serve into the body of Djokovic had him landing awkwardly and then immediately slipping as Federer hit a winner behind him. At the time and immediately following it looked as if Djokovic could be out of the match as he had tweaked his right knee to go along with the possible pain in his left knee. For the rest of the set, Federer appeared to be cruising as he took the second set 6-3 converting one of three break chances without facing any break chances on his own serve.

The third set was erratic to say the least. Djokovic opened the set by breaking Federer and holding for a 2-0 lead. After that Federer responded back with a string of good play that brought him to 2-2 40-15 with two chances to hold his serve for a 3-2 lead on serve. At this point Djokovic threw his racquet in frustration at his own play and it appeared the crowd began to change. Throughout the second set and early into the third, they were solidly behind Federer wanting to see more tennis. After the racquet toss, the Serbian fans in the crowd definitely took over the cheering, and Federer's game quickly dropped with a string of three unforced errors and a double fault to hand the break to Novak. From a string of winning 12 of 14 points, Roger quickly sank to lose the deciding set 6-2. Shot selection became an issue as Federer repeatedly attempted shots in the wrong circumstance, even making unforced errors simply by trying to run around his backhand and not being able to.



Though both players made a fair amount of unforced errors, 39 for Federer and 30 for Djokovic, it really appeared that the Djokovic return was a deciding factor in the match. In the big moments, even the threat of the Djokovic return was enough to rattle Federer into uncharacteristic errors. Now the world number two, Novak will take on reigning world number one, Rafael Nadal, for the BNP Paribas Open title on Sunday.