Federer to claim rare Nadal win to set up Djokovic Indian Wells final
Published:Beating Rafael Nadal has become a major problem for Roger Federer of late, but he can collect a rare victory to move into the final of the BNP Paribas Open, where he is likely to meet Novak Djokovic.
The world number one is playing in the first of the two semi finals at Indian Wells against home hope John Isner.
Roger Federer to beat Rafael Nadal @ 6/5
Despite meeting 29 times in their professional career, this is surprisingly the first time that the duo have met at Indian Wells, having avoided each other in the draw for the past seven years.
Nadal has won 20 of these encounters, including 12 of the last 15 and six of the last seven.
However, this may be Federer’s chance for a small measure of revenge for his recent troubles, even though Nadal clearly likes the Californian tournament having now reached the semi finals for a seventh straight year.
He played his quarter final first and put away Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets in a little over an hour.
Meanwhile, Nadal was only two points from going out and needed close to three hours to see off David Nalbandian in the later game, meaning he will have enjoyed a far lesser break.
Furthermore, Federer is on a run of two successive tournament victories heading into Indian Wells.
Novak Djokovic to beat John Isner 2-1 @ 7/2
Isner has already taken a huge step forward in 2012 with a victory over Roger Federer in the Davis Cup and this success also arrived on an unfavoured clay court.
This will have given him confidence, while he also took Djokovic to five sets in one of his two career meetings with the Serbian star back in 2010.
Although Djokovic should have too much for the tall American, Isner is capable of mounting a strong challenge if serving well and can take the clash to a third set, as little known Spaniard Pablo Andujar already has against the world number one at Indian Wells.
