Roger Federer begins his Indian Wells campaign against Igor Andreev today.
Federer is making a rare doubles appearance this week with close friend Stanislas Wawrinka and the Olympics champion proved their mettle with a resounding 6-1, 6-2 win over second seeds Max Miryni and Daniel Nestor.
It was a fine start to the tournament for Federer and he will be hoping to silence some of his doubters over the next week. He was soundly outplayed again by Novak Djokovic in the Dubai final, a loss which will have rankled with the Swiss.
Andreev has slipped down the rankings in the past few years but he often plays his best tennis as the underdog and he has the weapons to cause Federer a few problems. The Russian can hit the 130s with his serve as well as possessing one of the heaviest forehands in the game and he will be probing the Federer backhand all match long.
The conditions in Indian Wells are a little quicker than at the other North American hard court events, something Federer relishes. He's won all three of his previous matches with Andreev and he looked very sharp in yesterday's doubles. Expect him to pull through this one in straight sets.
