Roger Federer takes on Novak Djokovic with the world number two spot at stake in Indian Wells tonight.
Djokovic is the man to beat in world tennis right now and he took his winning streak to an unbelievable 18 matches with a 6-4, 6-2 quarter-final win over Richard Gasquet. The Serb is playing with the confidence of a man who believes he is the best in the world right now and it would be hard to argue with that assessment. Djokovic destroyed players of of the quality of Viktor Troicki and Ernests Gulbis 6-0, 6-1 earlier this week.
“Confidence plays a very important role in the life of a tennis player,” Djokovic said. “If you can roll on that run and try to use that confidence, then you can have a lot of success and you can really play well. That's what it's all about, my game these days."
Federer has already been outplayed twice by Djokovic this year, firstly in the Australian Open semi-finals and then even more convincingly in the Dubai final last month. Can the Swiss reverse the trend ? He will need his backhand to be far more effective than in either of those matches.
Djokovic's double-hander is a huge weapon and he attached Federer's backhand consistently all match with pace and depth in Dubai and the Swiss had little answer to it.
Federer has been playing well this week and he dispatched Stanislas Wawrinka comfortably 6-3, 6-4 in the quarters but he will need to produce something special to oust Djokovic in this mood.
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